m«*W 


THE   BILL-TOPPERS 


*M  ../;.    _J 

Poland,  the  Parisienne      Page  123 


THE 
BILL    TOPPERS 


BY 

ANDRE"  CASTAIGNE 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  BY 
THE  AUTHOR 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE  BOBBS- MERRILL  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT,  1909 
THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 


AUGUST 


PRESS  OF 

BRAUNWORTH  &  CO. 

BOOKBINDERS  AND  PRINTERS 

BROOKLYN,  N.  Y. 


TO  MY  LITTLE  FRIENDS 
THE  STARS! 


2134836 


THE   BILL-TOPPERS 


THE  BILL-TOPPERS 

OVERTURE 


All  around  stretched  the  great  blue  sky  and  the  blue 
sea  of  the  Gulf  of  Bengal. 

Mrs.  Clifton  lay  dozing  at  full  length  on  a  pillowed 
bench  and  her  husband  sat  near  her  and  followed  his 
Lily,  his  daughter,  with  his  eyes :  his  Lily,  eight  years  old, 
"that  high,"  waving  among  the  passengers  the  white  coral 
necklace  which  Pa  had  bought  her  on  leaving  Australia ; 
his  Lily,  his  star,  his  New  Zealander  on  Wheels!  His 
Lily  who  had  had  such  successes  at  Melbourne,  at  Sid- 
ney: bouquets,  tons  and  cart-loads  of  bouquets!  And 
the  past  would  be  nothing  compared  with  the  future,  with 
the  astounding  tricks  which  he  was  inventing  for  his 
Lily.  The  mere  sight  of  her  raised  his  enthusiasm  to  boil- 
ing-point. And  he  was  going  to  show  them,  in  Calcutta 
and  elsewhere,  if  they  knew  how  to  make  stars  in  New 
Zealand  or  if  they  were  only  fit  for  raising  mutton. 

Clifton  was  an  artist,  an  "artiste,"  a  born  artiste :  start- 
ing as  a  mere  clerk  in  an  office,  he  had  become  an  amateur 
cyclist  and  then  a  professional  on  the  track.  He  married 
an  Englishwoman  at  Wellington  and,  at  Lily's  birth,  de- 
cided upon  a  career :  the  stage,  with  Lily  for  a  star  later 
on !  And  he  set  to  work,  with  vim  and  vigor,  learned  a 

I 


2  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

« 

few  tricks  on  his  bike,  taught  his  wife  the  business  in  less 
than  no  time ;  and  Lily's  first  memories  as  a  four-year-old 
were: 

"I  was  sitting  on  Ma's  shoulders,  Ma  on  Pa's  and  Pa 
on  the  bike." 

And  Lily  zigzagged  through  New  Zealand,  from  east 
to  west  and  north  to  south,  and  Australia  after,  where 
she  received  plenty  of  applause  for  her  tricks,  childish  in 
themselves,  but  well  presented.  Her  triumphant  path 
wound  among  tinseled  bottles  containing  paper  flowers, 
with  a  faultless  standstill  for  the  climax,  one  hand  on 
the  handle-bar,  the  other  blowing  kisses  to  the  audience. 
This  procured  Pa  an  engagement  for  India.  He  ordered 
a  beautiful  colored  poster,  "The  Clifton  Family,  Trick 
Cyclists,"  with  a  portrait  in  the  corner  of  his  own  strong 
face  and  bristling  mustache — "P.  T.  Clifton,  Man- 
ager"— one  more  rung  in  the  ladder  of  life  mounted, 
thanks  to  his  Lily. 

And  Pa  smiled  to  his  daughter  and,  as  she  ran  past  him, 
lifted  her  on  his  knee  and  stroked  her  fair  curls ;  and  the 
child  cuddled  up  to  her  Pa,  opened  her  lips  to  ask  ques- 
tions, but  was  silent,  with  her  eyes  lost  in  space,  puckering 
her  little  forehead,  in  which  were  heaped  so  many  min- 
gled memories  of  the  stage  and  the  great  world  outside : 
the  Boxing  Kangaroo ;  tall  cliffs ;  green  islands ;  the 
bike ;  Batavia  among  the  trees ;  Singapore,  with  its  noise 
and  dust.  And  Lily,  wearily,  dreamed  and  murmured 
things,  while  the  steamer  sped  on,  thud,  thud,  thud,  flat 
as  a  stage  in  its  blue  "set." 

Lily's  impressions  of  India  were  months  of  jolting  and 
bumping,  stops  in  the  dead  of  night  while  the  tent  was 
pitched,  rains,  strong  smells,  oppressive  heats — months 
and  months  of  it,  Ma  on  Pa,  Pa  on  the  wheel  and  she 


OVERTURE  3 

on  top,  waving  flags.  Yellow  faces  on  the  benches, 
red  flowers  and,  somewhere,  on  a  river-bank,  two  eyes 
glittering  in  the  dark:  a  tiger,  somebody  said!  And 
every  night  the  artistes,  carrying  lanterns,  walked  in  file 
between  the  circus  and  the  hotel,  with  the  ladies  in  the 
center  and  Lily  clinging  to  Ma's  skirt. 

She  did  more  now,  in  addition  to  the  bike :  a  song-and- 
dance  turn.  In  a  piping  falsetto,  she  quavered : 

"Star  light !    Star  bright !" 

She  was  spoiled  by  the  ladies,  the  wives  of  the  officers 
stationed  in  those  out-of-the-way  holes.  She  played  with 
smart  children,  was  taken  for  drives,  had  her  social  suc- 
cesses! Chocolates,  sweets,  kisses.  And  a  lady  gave  her 
such  a  pretty  dress :  his  Lily !  Pa  burst  with  delighted 
pride  to  see  her  treated  like  that ;  and  Ma  scolded  her  a 
bit,  for  the  little  flirt  that  she  was,  while  fondly  tying  the 
two  satin  bows  over  her  ears. 

Lily  was  a  regular  tomboy,  with  pranks  invented  by 
herself,  from  ideas  which  she  picked  up  in  traveling:  for 
instance,  she  would  choose  her  moment  and  chuck  a  piece 
of  bacon  among  the  Mohammedans  sitting  under  her  win- 
dow ;  and  she  would  revel  in  her  own  fright  at  those 
furious  faces  suddenly  glaring  up  at  her  from  below ! 
And  she  would  stand  with  drooping  head,  one  finger  in 
her  mouth : 

"Oh,  so  sorry !" 

What  fun  !  And  as  an  artiste  she  was  spoiled  and  petted 
everywhere.  Goa,  Bangalore,  Tanjore  and  then  Colombo, 
and  a  ship  with  elephants,  tigers,  camels,  children,  men, 
women,  wagons,  one  great  mix-up,  a  circus  and  menagerie 
in  one,  steaming  toward  South  Africa;  and  Miss  Lily 
of  the  Clifton  Troupe  paraded  her  well-brushed,  neatly- 
parted  curls  in  the  midst  of  it  all,  gazed  open-mouthed  at 


4.  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

the  blue  expanse  of  water  until,  her  eyes  drunk  and  dazed 
with  light,  she  went  and  lay  in  her  cabin.  .  .  . 
And  more  and  more  blue  water.  And  thud,  thud, 
thud.  And  Cape  Town  in  the  mountains.  Africa  behind 
it :  a  country  all  yellow,  where  the  trains  wound  in  and 
out  of  the  rocks;  villages,  up,  up,  up,  or  else  right  low 
down,  on  the  yellow  veldt ;  and,  at  night,  on  the  benches, 
crowds  and  crowds.  Immediately  after  the  show  came 
sleep,  troubled  by  the  jolting  of  the  train ;  and  the  circus 
was  always  there  next  day,  on  the  right  or  on  the  left, 
with  its  Chinamen  and  its  niggers  driving  stakes  or  tug- 
ging at  ropes.  A  bell  for  dinner,  a  whistle  for  the  show ; 
and,  as  soon  as  the  show  was  over,  to  bed, — and  off  again. 

Pa  made  her  practice  harder  now,  wanted  to  make  a 
great  artiste  of  her.  And  there  was  a  class,  too,  kept  by 
a  "marm"  who  traveled  with  the  circus  and  taught  spell- 
ing and  arithmetic  and  the  art  of  letter-writing,  from 
"Yours  to  hand  with  thanks"  down  to  "Believe  me  to  be." 
Lily  would  have  been  bored  to  death  but  for  the  accidents 
of  travel :  sometimes  the  engine  broke  down,  bringing  the 
train  to  a  dead  stop  amid  the  great  African  silence,  near 
a  field  of  Indian  corn,  in  which  the  children  played  hide- 
and-seek.  Or  else  there  were  locusts,  locusts  "that  thick," 
right  inside  the  carriages.  Lily  would  tie  them  by  the  leg 
and: 

"Flip !  Flap !  Lively  now !  Jump !" 

But  funniest  of  all  was  the  caravan — she  couldn't  re- 
member where,  in  Natal  or  thereabouts — wagons  with  ten 
yoke  of  oxen.  They  climbed  up  endless  winding  roads. 
The  men  shot  at  birds  and  prospected  for  diamonds  along 
the  wayside;  and  at  night  they  took  the  hay  from  the 
mattresses  to  give  to  the  cattle.  Lolling  indolence  was  in 
the  air  and  plenty  in  the  larder :  big  fruits,  strange  game, 


LILY  IN  INDIA 


6  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

which  they  cooked  in  a  makeshift  oven  consisting  of  a 
few  stones.  Then  they  rolled  themselves  up  in  a  blanket, 
near  the  elephants  tugging  at  their  chains,  and  slept  under 
the  tent  in  the  cool,  bright,  starry  night. 

Months  and  months  passed.  Lily  was  becoming  very 
clever :  the  New  Zealander  on  Wheels !  She  was  cleverer 
than  Pa,  who  no  longer  performed,  nor  Ma  either, 
their  return  to  Australia,  Lily  appeared  by  herself  in  the 
music-halls,  and  P.  T.  Clifton,  Manager,  watched  her 
from  the  wings,  in  growing  admiration :  his  Lily  was  a 
star  now,  too  good  for  a  circus!  And  Australia,  pooh! 
Sidney,  Melbourne,  pooh !  What  Lily  wanted  was  New 
York,  London,  the  Hippodromes,  the  Palaces!  He'd 
show  them  a  star  that  was  a  star !  And  Clifton  clenched 
his  fists  and  pretended  not  to  see  when  Lily  made  a  blun- 
der on  the  stage :  his  Lily  missing  a  trick !  Disgracing  her 
Pa  like  that !  He  blushed  to  the  eyes  at  the  thought  of  it ! 
And,  when  she  returned  to  the  wings,  he  twitted  her 
proudly : 

"What  next,  Lily !  An  artiste  like  you !" 
And  Ma  adopted  a  sarcastic  air   and   congratulated 
"mademoiselle"  as  she  threw  the  white  wrapper  over 
"mademoiselle's"  shoulders. 

Ma  detested  the  stage.  She  did  not  think  it  a  nice  place 
for  herself;  but  for  a  brat  like  Lily,  Lord,  it  was  quite 
different!  And  she  ought  to  have  tried  to  please  her 
Pa  and  Ma.  Mrs.  Clifton,  though  she  never  voiced  the 
wish,  had  visions  of  a  trip  to  London,  to  stagger  some  re- 
lations, a  sister-in-law  she  had  there,  and  sneer  at  the  old 
country,  in  the  usual  colonial  fashion,  and  show  them 
what  the  new  countries  can  do,  countries  where  you  make 
a  fortune  in  less  than  no  time !  And,  little  by  little,  smit- 
ten with  Mr.  Clifton's  enthusiasm,  she  came  to  believe 


OVERTURE  7 

that,  in  Lily,  they  really  possessed  the  infant  prodigy,  the 
treasure-child  upon  whom  their  fortune  depended.  And 
Ma,  too,  was  vexed  when  Lily  missed  a  trick  on  the  stage. 

Lily  laughed  at  their  anger.  Ma  had  never  raised  a  hand 
to  her;  and,  as  for  Pa,  when  he  scolded,  Lily  had  such 
a  way  of  looking  at  him,  with  lowered  head — "Oh,  so 
sorry !" — that  Pa  simmered  down  again  at  once.  Lily,  a 
regular  "tenter,"  shot  up  freely,  grew  up  a  real  tomboy, 
went  a  bit  too  far,  in  fact,  Ma  said :  at  Honolulu,  for  in- 
stance, on  the  road  to  'Frisco  and  New  York,  where  Pa 
had  resolved  to  go,  at  all  costs,  come  what  might — it  was 
one  step  nearer  London ! — at  Honolulu — ten  days  there 
and  such  a  success ! — the  child  played  truant  in  the  gar- 
dens teeming  with  birds  and  fruit,  climbed  apple-trees, 
was  caught  one  day  and  scampered  off  at  full  speed, 
pursued  by  Ma,  who  threatened  to  give  her  a  sound 
smacking  this  time,  the  little  thief!  But  Pa  thought  it 
ridiculous,  for  the  sake  of  an  apple.  .  .  . 

"And  suppose  Lily  had  broken  her  leg  with  her  non- 
sense?" asked  Ma  indignantly.  "Where  would  your  New 
York  be?" 

Pa  felt  himself  a  conquering  hero  when  they  steamed 
through  the  Golden  Gate:  the  States  at  last!  And  no 
sooner  was  his  foot  on  the  wharf  at  'Frisco  than  off  to  the 
agents  at  once,  with  his  photographs,  his  contracts,  his 
posters !  But  it  was  her  birth-certificate  they  asked  to  see. 
And  no  babes  and  sucklings  allowed  on  the  stage  here.  It 
was  all  right  down  yonder,  but  the  law  prevented  it  here. 

"Damn  your  laws!"  snapped  Pa  furiously.  "Do  you 
think  we  make  stars  to  hide  them  under  bushels  ?" 

And  whoosh !  Off  for  Mexico,  where  children  are  al- 
lowed to  perform. 

Now,  in  Arizona,  near  Phoenix,  where  the  train  stopped 


8  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

for  some  hours,  owing  to  an  accident  to  the  Rio  Gila 
bridge,  Pa  happened  upon  a  merrymaking  which  re- 
minded him  of  West  Australia.  Cow-boys,  galloping 
horses,  a  pretense  at  fighting,  lassoing,  revolvers,  a  track 
for  amateur  cyclists  and— yes,  there,  in  the  deserti- 
on a  platform,  right  in  the  middle,  what  should  Pa  see 
but  an  amazing  artiste,  riding  on  the  back-wheel,  with  the 
other  in  the  air !  And  such  twirls !  And  the  boys  shouted 
to  him : 

"Hullo,  Trampy !  Have  a  drink,  Trampy !" 
And  Trampy  accepted : 

"With  you,  my  lord !  As  soon  as  I've  done,  my  lord !" 
And  off  he  wheeled,  head  on  the  saddle,  feet  in  the  air, 
whistling  Yankee  Doodle! 

It  was  impossible !  Pa  rubbed  his  eyes :  what !  Was 
this  what  they  did  in  the  States  in  the  desert  ?  And  he 
who  had  hoped,  with  Lily  .  .  .  why,  damn  it,  Lily 
knew  nothing !  He  himself,  her  manager,  knew  less  than 
nothing!  He,  who  thought  he  had  formed  a  star!  Pa 
was  red  with  shame.  And,  suddenly,  he  had  a  happy 
thought :  he,  too,  offered  Trampy  a  drink,  something  to 
propose  to  him.  .  .  . 
"All  right." 

They  shook  hands,  went  to  the  bar,  lit  a  cigar,  like  men, 
by  Jove !  Clifton  loved  to  talk  business,  to  pull  out  note- 
books, quick,  and  jot  things  down  with  a  knowing  air. 
Trampy,  a  mere  boy,  easy-going,  genial,  without  a  red 
cent  fur  the  time  being,  didn't  care  a  hang  about  business 
and  was  soon  telling  Clifton  the  story  of  his  life :  drum- 
mer, reporter,  racer ;  his  descent, — "Two  whiskies,  boy !" 
— what  was  he  saying?  Oh,  yes,  his  descent  of  a  staircase 
on  the  bike,  yes,  siree,  with  a  red-hot  stove  under  his  arm — 
a  stove  painted  to  look  red-hot — pursued  by  a  policeman, 


OVERTURE  9 

leaping  over  obstacles  on  the  bike;  great  success  at  Du- 
luth  and  Denver  as  a  tramp  cyclist:  hence  his  name  of 
Trampy  Wheel-Pad.  But  those  girls,  by  Jove !  Well,  he 
who  fights  and  runs  away  lives  to  fight  another  day.  Still, 
a  rolling  stone  doesn't  climb  hills.  Here  he  was,  stranded. 
Go  to  Mexico?  So  much  a  week?  Such  and  such  a  turn? 
Teach  the  child?  Cert! 

Lily  never  alluded  to  Mexico  afterward  without  shak- 
ing with  anger.  My,  to  listen  to  her,  how  badly  they 
treated  her  in  Mexico !  Worse  than  a  Dago !  To  tell  the 
truth,  it  was  hot;  and  Lily,  already  tired  by  those  long 
journeys  in  varying  climates,  Lily  would  have  preferred 
to  do  nothing  and  to  continue  to  lead  her  careless  life  as 
a  playful  filly.  But  no,  poor  Lily  was  caught  by  the  hind- 
leg  in  Mexico !  Ambition  had  seized  upon  Pa,  body  and 
soul,  and  life  became  a  more  serious  matter  for  the  child. 

"Look  here !"  said  Pa,  pointing  to  Trampy.  "What  he, 
a  man,  does,  you  can  do !  I'll  see  to  that !" 

Pa  arranged  for  a  place  in  which  to  practise  at  their 
ease.  In  the  evening,  on  the  stage,  he  watched  and 
studied  Trampy's  tricks  and,  in  the  morning,  quick,  out 
of  bed,  look  alive,  the  bike !  Pa  no  longer  had  his  open- 
mouthed  admiration  for  Lily,  as  in  South  Africa  and 
Asia :  his  Lily  knew  nothing  at  all !  But  in  three  months, 
six  months,  if  necessary,  if  it  cost  him  every  penny  he 
possessed.  And  it  was : 

"Come  along,  Lily  ...  to  work!  Show  what 
you  can  do !" 

Trampy,  in  this  country  of  manolas — "Grand,  by 
Jove!" — came  round  about  eleven;  and  Pa,  all  out  of 
breath,  passed  Lily  on  to  him : 

"You  have  a  go  at  her,  Trampy !  I  give  up,  she  won't 
do  what  I  say  I" 


10 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 


And  Trampy  put  down  his  cigar,  took  off  his  collar  and 
cuffs  and  it  was,  "Come  along,  Lily !"  till  lunch-time.  The 
child,  her  eyes  blinking  with  fatigue,  fell  fast  asleep  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  meal. 

Pa  was  delighted. 

And  he  confided  her  to  Trampy  more  and  more,  with 
orders  not  to  spare  smackings  in  case  of  need : 

"Eh,  Lily?    Eh?" 

As  for  him,  he  had  business  to  do,  letters  to  write, 
great  schemes  in  his  head !  for  instance,  he  must  try  to 
get  permission  for  Lily  to  appear  in  the  States. 

"Time  for  a  cigar,  I  guess,"  said  Trampy,  as  soon  as 
Clifton  was  gone. 

Work  stopped  abruptly;  a  tumbler's  carpet  rolled  up 
in  a  corner  formed  an  inviting  lounge ;  and  Lily,  panting 
from  her  practice,  would  stretch  herself  beside  him  and 
enjoy  a  few  happy  moments,  the  only  really  happy  mo- 
ments of  the  day;  for  there  were  matinees  in  the  after- 
noon and  the  evening  performance  at  night,  till  she  was 
ready  to  drop  with  weariness.  Trampy  treated  Lily 
nicely,  like  a  grown-up  person,  called  her  by  the  name  of 
a  fruit,  or  a  flower,  or  a  bird,  jollied  her,  called  her  "lit- 
tle wifie :"  it  was  all  one  to  her.  He  made  her  laugh  with 
his  funny  stories,  his  fairy  tales  about  himself,  his  ter- 
rible struggle  with  a  snake  in  the  streets  of  'Frisco,  after 
a  champagne  supper :  girls,  by  Jove !  He  toned  down  his 
anecdotes  and  dished  them  up  for  Lily's  entertainment ; 
told  her  absurd  yarns  enlivened  with  mimicry,  in  which 
he  excelled,  like  the  real  mummer  that  he  was,  and  Lily 
shrieked  with  laughter,  head  thrown  back,  full-throated. 

And  there  was  a  spice  of  fear  in  it  all:  was  that  Pa 
coming  back  ?  No,  a  carpenter  or  scene-shifter,  perhaps, 
or  else  the  Martellos,  brother  and  sister,  going  to  practise 


OVERTURE  11 

slack-wire,  head  and  hand  balancing.  Their  father,  old 
Martello,  a  famous  name,  lived  in  London,  it  appeared, 
alone  with  his  Bambinis,  mere  babes  still.  His  other 
children  and  his  apprentices  had  all  run  away,  to  escape 
his  horsewhip,  and  the  brother  in  Mexico  was  contin- 
uing the  tradition.  His  brutality,  in  fact,  got  him  into 
trouble  wherever  he  went,  so  much  so  that  the  big  music- 
halls  were  closed  to  him,  for  fear  of  scandal.  And  he 
terrorized  his  sister,  Ave  Maria,  a  girl  of  sixteen,  a  dark 
girl  with  great  dark  eyes.  Ave  Maria  never  spoke  to 
anybody ;  when  she  passed  through  the  room  where  Lily 
was  having  fun  with  Trampy,she  fixed  a  fiery  glance  upon 
them,  even  ventured  or  a  smile,  for  Trampy  in  particu- 
lar, whose  lively  stories  reached  her  through  the  partition 
behind  which  she  dressed.  Oh,  how  she  envied  Lily ! 
But  she  passed  very  quickly,  because  of  her  brother. 

And  this  time  it  was  Pa!  Lily  jumped  on  to  the  saddle 
like  mad,  played  her  part  to  perfection,  puffed  and  pant- 
ed, as  if  the  last  drop  of  strength  were  oozing  out  of 
her,  and  Trampy  joined  in  the  little  comedy  of  fibbing 
and  dissembling: 

"There,  like  that,  Lily,  or  I'll  smack  you !" 
"That's  right,"  said  Pa.  "Make  her  work !" 
And,  just  to  show  Lily  what  work  meant  and  that  her 
Pa  was  not  so  unkind  after  all — "It's  for  your  good,  Lily ! 
You'll  thank  me  one  of  these  days !" — he  took  her  to  the 
stage,  where  Ave  Maria  was  practising.  Now,  of  course, 
in  the  circuses,  Lily,  occasionally,  had  seen  children 
knocked  and  cut  about  with  blows  and  trained  to  say, 
"It  was  the  cat,"  when  any  one  asked  them  about  the 
marks.  They  were  ordinary  children;  she  had  rolled 
about  in  the  sawdust  with  them,  played  hide-and-seek 
with  them  in  the  fields  of  Indian  corn ;  they  were  chil- 


12  THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

dren  who  romped  and  ran  about  and  laughed.  Ave 
Maria  was  different.  The  brother,  a  savage,  scowling 
brute,  was  always  after  her,  harrying  her  with  muttered 
threats.  She  was  in  a  constant,  visible  tremble  of  fear ; 
and,  if  she  slipped  on  her  wire,  the  fellow  snarled  as  if 
to  bite  her  in  the  foot,  pinched  her  black  and  blue,  re- 
stored her  balance  with  a  blow  of  the  belt,  shook  the  sup- 
ports to  make  her  fall  just  to  see !  .  .  . 

"Oh,  Pa,  he'll  kill  her !"  whispered  Lily,  when  she  saw 
Ave  Maria  practising. 

"It's  none  of  our  damned  business,"  replied  Pa  curtly. 

Martello's  evil  example  ended  by  catching  hold  of  Pa : 
that's  how  artistes  were  formed,  damn  it!  And,  at  the 
thought  of  the  time  wasted,  he  clenched  his  fists.  To 
have  a  Lily  of  his  own,  all  his  own,  and  to  have  made 
nothing  out  of  her  yet !  Still,  it  was  not  Lily's  fault. 
Yes,  though,  it  was  her  fault,  she  was  so  stubborn,  so 
wilful !  When  he  told  her  to  do  a  thing,  why  not  do  it  ? 
Instead  of  bleating : 

"Pa,  I  can't!  Pa,  I  can't!" 

A  brief  struggle,  in  a  way,  followed  between  Lily  and 
her  Pa.  Lily  was  not  built  for  passive  obedience,  wasn't 
used  to  it.  She  no  longer  knew  her  Pa.  When  he  came 
at  her  with  his  hand  lifted  to  strike,  when  he  spoke  of 
unbuckling  his  belt— "Damn  those  blasted  brats !" — Lily 
eyed  him  with  a  look  of  anguish  : 

"But  Pa,  I'm  not  Ave  Maria !"  she  said.  "I'm  not  a 
Dago." 

And  she  raised  her  little  rebellious  face  to  him.  He 
humbled  her  with  a  smack  on  the  cheek : 

"On  the  saddle !    Up !    Quick !" 

The  child,  mastered  by  her  Pa's  strength  and  energy, 
ceased  to  be  the  spoiled  child,  became  an  artiste. 


OVERTURE  13 

Head  on  the  saddle,  back-wheel:  just  like  Trampy! 
Pooh,  Trampy,  after  a  few  months  of  this  life,  was  no- 
where, Clifton  admired  him  less  and  less,  Lily  was  doing 
all  that  he  did,  more  than  he  did;  and  without  a  fault, 
without  a  hitch,  unerring1  and  exact!  Pa  swelled  with 
pride  at  the  mere  sight  of  his  Lily,  his  four  stone  ten  of 
flesh  and  bones  fitted  to  the  machine,  his  Lily,  the  Lily  of 
his  dreams ! 

"I'll  dress  you  in  velvet  and  satin !"  he  said,  in  his  en- 
thusiasm. "I'll  cover  you  with  diamonds." 

Pa,  thanks  to  his  indomitable  energy,  had  made  some- 
thing of  his  Lily,  a  real  artiste,  at  last!  And  business 
was  moving,  too !  He  had  a  contract  in  his  pocket  for 
the  States,  where  Lily  would  no  doubt  get  permission  to 
do  her  "childish  tricks,"  seeing  that  she  was  traveling 
with  her  Pa  and  Ma.  As  for  Trampy,  Pa  had  no  use  for 
Trampy,  made  no  bones  about  sacking  him  on  some  pre- 
text or  other : 

"Run  away  and  play  with  your  girls,  by  Jove!  Or 
whatever  you  please !  Good-by !  Ta-ta !" 

And  off  for  Denver,  whence  they  were  to  continue  the 
journey  up  to  Chicago. 

It  was  the  dive  for  good  and  all  into  the  stuffy  atmos- 
phere behind  the  scenes,  which  Lily  was  never  again  to 
leave,  brick  walls,  where  she  waited  her  turn  on  the  elabo- 
rate program  of  the  "continuous  performances,"  amid 
the  thunder  of  the  orchestra  and  the  lightning  of  the  re- 
flectors. No  time  to  go  out,  meals  consumed  in  your 
dressing-room  on  the  top  of  the  basket  trunk.  In  the 
mornings,  new  tricks  to  practise  on  the  stage,  in  the 
midst  of  a  herd  of  girls  whom  gentlemen  in  their  shirt- 
sleeves were  training  to  sing  in  chorus  and  to  keep  step 


14  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

to  the  strum  of  the  piano.  And  ever  and  ever  so  many 
new  faces,  a  tumult  of  tongues  which  Lily  heard  on  the 
stage,  in  the  dressing-room,  and  even  in  her  room  at  the 
hotel,  through  the  thin  partition  walls :  a  lingo  made  up 
of  coarse  remarks  and  thick  stories,  punctuated  with 
spitting  and  oaths  strong  enough  to  carry  a  tower  of 
Babel.  Lily  opened  her  eyes  and  ears,  heaping  it  all  up, 
storing  it  all  away  behind  her  stubborn  forehead.  .  .  . 

And  new  people,  new  people:  "families,"  "brothers," 
"sisters,"  troupes,  troupes,  troupes!  Or  else  stars  by 
themselves,  "bests,"  "uniques:"  a  female-impersonator, 
a  green-eyed  boy  who  wagged  his  hips  like  the  very  devil 
and  took  off  the  girls ;  Poland,  a  Warsaw  Jewess,  a  red- 
headed, overscented  beauty,  who  did  the  "Parisienne," 
and  ever  and  ever  so  many  others.  And  Lily,  so  slender 
and  frail,  was  the  pet  of  them  all.  They  called  her  their 
pretty  baby,  their  petit  chcri,  and,  with  their  painted 
mugs,  kissed  her  full  on  the  lips. 

Pa  detested  this  "rotten  lot"  and  Pa  was  not  always 
in  a  good  temper.  Lily  "under  age," — again!  Why, 
there  were  even  managers  who  informed  the  police,  so  as 
to  be  on  the  safe  side ;  "traveling  with  her  parents ;  child- 
ish tricks;  nothing  difficult."  .  .  .  Ma's  indignation 
knew  no  bounds:  what  nonsense  to  prevent  a  great  big 
girl  of  fifteen  from  earning  her  living!  For  she  aged 
Lily  as  much  as  she  could,  to  obtain  the  permission, 
when  no  papers  were  asked  for;  and  she  had  trained 
Lily  to  reply  to  the  indiscreet  questions  of  the  officials: 
was  her  trick  hard  ?  Was  she  forced  into  doing  it  ?  Lily 
answered  mechanically  that  she  liked  the  bike  very  much. 
And  then  they  allowed  her  to  perform. 

As  for  practising,  permission  or  none,  that  was  no- 
body's damned  business.  And  if  some  old  sheep  took  to 


OVERTURE  15 

bleating— "Poor  child,  you'll  be  the  death  of  her !" — Pa 
sent  the  old  sheep  to  eat  coke  ;  and  it  was : 

"Up,  Lily !  Get  on  your  bike !  Look  alive !" 

And  the  bloomers  that  Lily  wore  out!  Ma  was  kept 
busy  in  the  dressing-room  mending  the  rents  at  the  knees 
and  patching  the  seats : 

"What  a  tomboy !"  Ma  cried. 

And  this  went  on  for  months  and  months.  And 
then  came  Chicago ;  a  visit  of  Pa's  to  the  agents ;  and  a 
contract  with  the  New  York  Olympians,  a  variety-show 
coming  from  the  West  and  returning  to  New  York  by 
Columbus  and  Pittsburg.  And  new  people,  new  people ; 
stars  of  every  kind:  the  Para  woman,  a  rheumatic  jug- 
gler, who  was  obliged  to  change  her  turn  and  become  an 
exhibitor  of  performing  parrots,  a  ragged,  molting 
troupe,  picked  up  cheap  at  second-hand ;  an  infant 
prodigy  who  topped  the  bill,  a  boy-violinist,  leading  an 
orchestra,  too,  at  fourteen,  a  pretentious  little  humbug 
trained  to  make  a  few  movements,  while  others  did  the 
work.  Lily  thought  him  so  good-looking  she  simply 
couldn't  take  her  eyes  off  him.  And  then  she  had  some 
big  girl-friends  who  had  had  love  affairs !  They  were 
the  Three  Graces,  gymnasts  endowed  with  bodies  like  so 
many  Apollos,  honest  German  faces  and  a  bewildering 
amount  of  strength,  pluck  and  precision.  .  .  . 

"What  smackings  that  must  have  taken !"  thought  Pa. 

But  no,  their  uncle  and  manager,  Mr.  Fuchs — a  name 
as  famous  in  its  way  as  Martello's — was  known  for  his 
gentleness  and  adored  and  coddled  and  pampered  by  the 
Three  Graces,  who,  at  a  sign  from  "Nunkie,"  as  they 
called  him,  joyously  rushed  to  practice,  taking  a  pride  in 
pleasing  their  dear  Nunkie. 

"The  old  rogue!"  said  Pa  enviously.     "He  has  an 


16  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

easy  time  of  it ;  whereas  I,  with  my  skinny  kitten,  damn 

it    ...     !" 

Well,  well,  he  mustn't  complain,  as  he  himself  ad- 
mitted: one  more  rung  which  he  had  mounted,  thanks 
to  his  Lily,  that  engagement  with  the  best  variety-show  in 
the  States;  nothing  but  big  theaters:  Orpheums!  Do- 
minions! And  New  York  next!  And  then  London! 
Things  were  moving,  moving!  And  Pa  looked  lovingly 
at  his  Lily,  as  she  played  at  being  grown  up  with  the 
Three  Graces,  in  the  train  on  Sunday,  traveling  from 
town  to  town,  while  Ma  was  knitting  things  for  her 
tomboy.  He  talked  to  Mr.  Fuchs  as  between  equals,  as 
between  man  and  man,  as  between  the  manager  of  a  star 
and  the  owner  of  a  troupe ;  and  the  train  rushed  on,  rushed 
on,  with  an  indistinct  sound  of  the  engine-bell,  now  and 
again,  when  they  crossed  a  street.  Mr.  Fuchs,  heavy- 
jawed,  slow  of  speech,  said  that  he  had  had  enough  of 
traveling,  at  his  age,  if  it  were  not  for  his  dear  nieces. 
He  would  like  to  retire  to  the  country,  to  his  little  home, 
and  grow  his  roses,  as  soon  as  he  had  married  off  his 
dear  nieces,  which  would  not  be  long,  no  doubt.  As  it 
was,  one  of  them,  Thea,  the  one  who  did  five  pullings-up 
with  her  left  hand,  had  his  permission  to  receive  letters 
from  her  sweetheart,  a  young  man  at  St.  Louis,  quite 
well-off.  The  idyl  made  good  Mr.  Fuchs  blossom  into  a 
genial  smile:  family  life!  Simple  joys!  The  only  true 
ones !  Worth  more  than  the  stage !  And  Nunkie  talked 
and  talked:  the  Parisienne,  a  perpetual  scandal!  And 
wait  a  bit :  what  was  that  he  heard  at  an  agent's  the  other 
day?  Yes,  the  daughter  of  his  old  friend  Martello,  Ave 
Maria  her  name  was,  had  left  her  brother,  and  run  away 
from  Mexico  with  a  man!  Tut,  tut,  the  things  one  saw 
nowadays ! 


OVERTURE  17 

Pa  hardly  listened  to  the  old  crock,  preferred  to  dream 
of  New  York  and  the  success  his  Lily  would  achieve 
there!  And  Lily,  sitting  close  by,  listened  with  all  her 
ears,  puckered  her  little  forehead:  love,  love.  .  .  . 
And  Ave  Maria,  who  had  run  away  with  a  man.  .  .  . 
Why  with  a  man  ?  And  she  squeezed  up  against  Thea, 
the  Grace  who  was  in  love  .  .  .  put  question  after 
question.  .  .  .  She  talked  of  her  boy-violinist,  of 
Trampy.  And  they  all  laughed  boisterously,  with  heads 
thrown  back,  full-throated,  and  Nunkie,  very  paternally, 
congratulated  Mr.  Clifton  on  his  daughter's  niceness. 

"For  goodness'  sake,  don't  go  putting  it  into  her  head 
that  she's  pretty,  the  little  devil!"  protested  Ma.  "That 
would  be  the  last  straw !" 

The  arrival  in  New  York  was  a  disappointment  to  Pa. 
The  authorities  insisted  on  seeing  the  papers  this  time. 
Lily  was  under  age;  just  as  at  'Frisco.  What!  Why? 
Because  of  former  scandals,  it  appeared:  Martello  and 
Ave  Maria.  What  had  he,  a  British  subject,  to  do  with 
those  Dagoes  who  spoil  the  profession  ?  growled  Pa.  He 
ended  by  rebelling  against  the  injustice  of  it,  thought  of 
the  Three  Graces  hard  at  work  rehearsing  under  Nunkie's 
eye,  while  he,  Clifton,  had  not  even  the  right  to  set  foot 
on  a  stage  and  let  Lily  practise  there.  To  work,  to  work, 
damn  it !  And  he  locked  her  up  all  day  in  her  room  doing 
her  balancings,  the  boomerang  on  the  front  wheel,  the 
standstill  on  the  back-wheel,  or  the  bike  upside  down, 
with  Lily  standing  on  the  pedals,  like  a  convict  on  the 
tread-mill.  The  pack  of  fools!  Because  a  Dago  had 
whipped  his  sister,  wasn't  a  Pa  to  have  the  right  to  bring 
his  own  daughter  up  ?  To  work,  to  work !  And  he  kept 


18  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

her  at  it  for  hours  and  hours,  watched  and  knit  his  brows, 
like  a  sage  pondering  for  hours  over  the  solution  of  a 
problem. 

Lily,  breathless,  would  turn  a  look  of  entreaty  upon 
her  Ma,  but  Mrs.  Clifton,  with  her  nose  bent  over  her 
work,  pretended  not  to  see,  obstinately  went  on  cutting 
out,  patching,  sewing  her  tomboy's  bloomers.  Lily  longed 
for  Trampy.  .  .  . 

At  night,  Pa  ran  from  theater  to  theater :  from  Four- 
teenth Street,  where  they  lodged,  to  Twenty-third  Street ; 
took  the  elevated  to  Fifty-eighth  Street,  to  Hundred 
and-twenty-fifth  Street!  All  theaters  at  which  Lily 
would  have  triumphed  but  for  those  dirty  Dagoes! 
And  the  things  that  were  served  up  to  the  public,  pooh ! 
Clifton  laughed  with  scorn.  Troupes  of  English  dancing- 
girls — the  famous  Roofers — with  movements  like  stuffed 
dolls ;  and  cyclists,  pooh !  Hauptmanns,  fat  freaks  turned 
out  in  Berlin :  if  that  was  the  best  they  could  do,  pooh ! 
Oh,  if  he  had  only  had  the  right  to  send  his  New  Zeal- 
ander  on  Wheels  scooting  in  among  their  legs,  just  to 
show  the  public  what  a  star  really  was!  And  all  the 
morning  he  ran  about  the  town  talking  of  "childish  tricks 
— a  big  girl"  to  the  police  and  "wonderful  tricks — the 
only  girl  of  her  age  who  can  do  them"  to  the  agents  in 
the  St.  James'  Building.  Oh,  if  he  could  have  London ! 
He  longed  to  measure  his  strength  against  all  those  fa- 
mous names — Marjutti,  Laurence,  the  Pawnees — just  to 
show  them  his  Lily ! 

And  now  it  was  the  last  stage.  All  around  stretched 
the  dark  sea;  and  the  liner  sped— thud,  thud,  thud- 
through  a  gloomy  set.  Three  days  more  and  then  Liv- 


OVERTURE  19 

erpool ;  and  London  at  last !  Pa  was  about  to  realize 
his  dream.  He  had  signed,  at  last,  for  the  Castle,  in  Lon- 
don !  It  was  all  right,  it  was  all  right !  Prospects  fine ! 
And  Harrasford  was  on  board ;  it  seemed  a  sign  of  good 
luck !  He  was  traveling  with  his  architect.  Harrasford, 
the  great  English  manager — Pa  knew  them  all  by  name 
— Harrasford,  the  man  for  whom  a  whole  nation  of  "art- 
istes" toiled  and  moiled  nightly.  Pa  had  caught  a  glimpse 
of  him  .  .  .  He  would  have  liked  to  introduce  his 
Lily  to  him ;  no  matter,  he  would  know  her  one  day,  when 
she  was  starring  in  his  halls !  And  on  the  Bill  and  Boom 
Tour !  And  elsewhere !  She  would  soon  be  famous. 

Ma,  who  remained  lying  in  her  bunk  sucking  lemons, 
would  have  liked  to  have  her  Lily  by  her,  within  call,  to 
keep  her  mother  company,  that  great  big  girl  spoiled  by 
her  Pa,  even  when  she  was  not  performing,  as  in  New 
York;  ...  a  new  cloak  and  boots  and  gewgaws 
.  .  .  a  couple  of  fools  together,  that's  what  Ma 
called  them!  And  she  needed  watching,  that  tomboy, 
who  would  break  her  leg  one  of  these  days,  tumbling  up 
and  down  the  companion-way.  But  Lily  preferred  to 
enjoy  herself  and  expended  on  running  about  the  ener- 
gies which  she  no  longer  had  to  devote  to  her  practising. 
Her  accumulated  weariness  disappeared  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  sleep  and  the  good  meals,  which  she  had  not 
the  boredom  of  having  to  get  ready,  as  in  Fourteenth 
Street,  where  Lily,  big  girl  that  she  was,  had  to  help 
her  Ma. 

She  flitted  all  over  the  deck,  munching  candies, 
showed  everybody  her  new  boots  and  her  red  cloak,  held 
her  head  high,  was  very  proud  of  being  looked  at.  Lily 
dreamed  of  the  Three  Graces;  of  the  boy-violinist;  of 
Trampy.  She  made  conquest  upon  conquest,  down  to  the 


20  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

electrician  of  the  ship,  quite  a  young  lad,  who  looked  as 
cold  as  ice. 

She  sometimes  stopped  at  his  door,  watched  him  han- 
dling levers,  pressing  buttons.  It  was  like  the  switch- 
board of  a  theater.  She  pointed  to  this  and  to  that.  The 
lad  smiled,  told  the  New  Zealander  on  Wheels  all  about 
his  little  world.  .  .  . 

As  for  Lily,  she  was  going  to  star  in  London,  where 
her  Pa  would  cover  her  with  diamonds !  And  she  went 
on  to  tell  him  stories,  like  a  little  school-girl  who  has 
read  a  book  or  two:  India,  two  eyes  glittering  in  the 
dark,  gee!  And  elephants  she  had  known,  little  birds 
which  she  had  kept  hi  a  cage  in  Natal,  and  kangaroos. 
The  lion,  who  stands  up  on  his  hind  legs  when  he's  angry ; 
and  the  tiger,  who  lies  down  flat.  And  parrots.  And 
starry  nights  in  Africa:  stars  "that  big."  And  storms: 
waves  "miles  high!"  And  successes  at  Gangpur;  and  in 
Chicago,  where  she  shared  a  dressing-room  with  three 
girls  who,  when  they  were  undressed,  were  all  over 
muscles,  just  like  men.  She  liked  the  bike  well  enough, 
but  those  falls :  oh,  damn  it ! 

"That  little  monkey  has  seen  everything  in  her  time," 
thought  Jimmy,  the  electrician. 

And  he  mused  upon  the  numberless  things  which  she 
had  seen,  the  countries,  the  cities,  and  all  that  she  would 
yet  see,  in  her  life  as  a  wandering  star,  while  he  would 
remain  walled  up  in  his  cabin,  with  his  nose  to  the  switch- 
board. 

And  the  steamer  sped — thud,  thud,  thud — over  the 
dark  sea,  where  the  noise  of  the  waves  sounded  like  the 
roar  of  multitudes  of  men.  Huge  clouds  in  the  east  were 
tinged  with  red,  as  though  London  were  about  to  loom 
above  the  horizon  in  all  its  glory,  filling  the  vast  expanse 
with  its  rumors  and  its  lights.  . 


CURTAIN  RISES 


"Lily  .  .  .  wtio's  Lily  ?  A  New  Zealander :  really  ? 
Ah  well,  we  will  look  into  the  matter ;  it  will  be  settled, 
later  on  .  .  ." 

Clifton,  when  he  returned  home  that  evening,  gnawed 
his  mustache  and  clenched  his  fists  with  rage.  Ah,  he 
would  not  soon  forget  his  arrival  in  London!  To  get 
there  and  be  chucked !  Was  that  what  he  had  come  from 
New  York  for?  To  see  Lily's  place  at  the  Castle  filled 
by  another  troupe  of  the  Hauptmanns — the  Hauptmanns 
again,  those  fat  freaks  ! — and  nothing  to  be  said  or  done  ? 

"Engagement  not  valid.  Ought  at  least  to  have  waited 
for  the  London  agency's  signed  contract  before  leaving!" 

Intent  upon  his  vexations  of  the  moment,  he  described 
his  day  to  Mrs.  Clifton.  What  had  staggered  him,  done 
for  him,  was  his  visit  to  the  agent,  where  they  hadn't 
seemed  to  know  Lily ! 

He  had  rushed  at  once  to  others,  just  to  show  them  who 
Miss  Lily  was !  But  he  got  the  same  reply  wherever  he 
went: 

"Lily?  Who's  Lily?  A  Maori?  Let's  see  the  photo- 
graph." 

And  would  Mrs.  Clifton  ever  believe,  asked  the  indig- 
nant Pa,  what  they  said  when  they  handed  him  back  the 
photograph?  Yes,  to  him,  the  father,  to  his  face,  they 
said: 

"She's  too  thin,  that  Lily  of  yours !" 

21 


22  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"If  that's  the  way  they  welcome  British  subjects  re- 
turning to  the  mother-country,  it's  jolly  encouraging,  on 
my  word  it  is !"  concluded  Clifton. 

Ma,  among  the  open  boxes,  listened  and  said  nothing ; 
she  was  exasperated.  Their  entry  into  the  metropolis 
struck  her,  too,  as  anything  but  triumphal.  For  all  her 
dislike  of  those  breakneck  trades,  for  all  her  contempt 
for  the  bike,  she  displayed  even  more  anxiety  than  Pa. 
With  those  fat  freaks  at  the  Castle  and  if  engagements 
continued  scarce,  how  would  they  manage,  later  on,  lost 
in  that  huge  London,  with  no  money,  and  a  child  to  feed  ? 
Her  vanity  was  wounded  as  well.  She  had  dreamed  of 
dazzling  her  sister-in-law,  making  them  all  burst  with 
jealousy  over  the  splendid  engagement  at  the  Castle ;  and 
now  everything  was  slipping  from  their  hands,  on  the 
very  day  of  their  arrival,  and  there  was  nothing  for  them 
but  to  sit  at  home  and  keep  quiet. 

But  Pa,  the  next  day,  tore  through  London  like  one 
possessed,  grinding  his  teeth  and  clenching  his  fists,  rail- 
ing at  everybody,  himself  included.  He  thought  of  Lily, 
who  had  lost  a  week  on  the  voyage  and  who  was  now 
messing  about  in  the  house,  instead  of  practising  her  bike. 
This  idea  pursued  him,  clung  to  him ;  but  his  perseverance 
was  indomitable,  his  courage  ready  to  face  anything  or 
anybody.  Lily  should  perform  at  the  Castle!  She  had 
come  to  perform  there  and  perform  there  she  should ! 
There  were  more  visits  to  the  agents,  to  this  one  and 
that  one,  to  one  and  all,  indefatigable  visits.  Clifton 
insisted  on  his  Lily's  merits,  pulled  out  his  pocket-book, 
bursting  with  press-cuttings,  offered  to  prove  his  state- 
ments. The  agent,  on  his  side,  had  made  inquiries. 
Lily  was  very  clever  for  her  age :  a  little  thin,  it  was  true, 
but  very  graceful;  and  the  New  Zealander  on  Wheels 


CURTAIN    RISES  23 

ought  to  get  on.  Clifton  would  work  up  her  turn,  no 
doubt.  And,  at  last,  Pa  obtained  a  promise  in  writing — • 
and  signed — of  an  engagement  in  eight  months'  time 
.„  '  ,  .  at  the  Castle,  damn  it ! 

An  engagement  in  eight  months  was  better  than  no- 
thing; but  what  to  do  in  the  meanwhile?  It  wasn't  the 
money  question  that  bothered  him ;  Pa  had  money ;  but 
Lily  worried  him :  he  wanted  work  for  Lily,  bike  all  the 
time  and  hard  at  it.  Now,  London  was  closed  to  him ; 
he  couldn't  let  her  perform  in  London  before  appearing 
at  the  Castle;  that  was  in  the  contract;  and  there  was 
nothing  for  the  provinces. 

His  tenacity  continued  to  do  him  good  service.  He  got 
a  few  offers,  in  the  London  suburbs ;  that  could  do  him 
no  harm,  he  knew,  though  his  Lily  did  appear  at  Dul- 
wich,  Deptford  or  West  Ham :  who  would  think  of  going 
there  to  discover  that  shrimp?  .  .  .  damn  their  im- 
pudence !  And  meantime  the  shrimp  would  work  and  her 
day  would  come,  you  pack  of  fat  freaks,  you ! 

Pa,  on  the  whole,  was  satisfied.  To  show  Lily,  that 
was  all  he  asked  for !  He  was  quieter,  now  that  she  could 
practise.  And  Lily,  also,  was  delighted  and  relieved. 
At  first  it  was  jolly,  doing  nothing;  but  to  be  always  at 
home  with  Ma  had  its  drawbacks;  only  the  other  day, 
because  she  had  asked  for  a  tam-o'-shanter  with  a  feather 
in  it,  like  those  she  saw  the  little  girls  wear  in  the  street, 
she  had  nearly  had  a  box  on  the  ear,  the  extravagant  little 
beast,  who  would  bring  them  all  to  the  workhouse ! 

Better  biking  with  Pa,  from  morning  till  night,  and 
only  coming  home  after  the  show.  Besides,  away  from 
the  work,  Pa  was  nice  to*  her :  a  packet  of  sweets  here,  a 
bunch  of  violets  there ;  and  then  there  were  the  train  jour- 
neys out  of  London  and  back,  over  the  roofs:  all  those 


24  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

little  yellow  houses,  with"  white  curtains,  and  those  little 
back  yards,  no  bigger  than  that— real  dolls'  houses,  all 
alike— and  such  lots  of  little  chimneys,  such  lots  and  lots 
of  little  chimneys ;  and  those  gorgeous  posters :  Hippo- 
drome, Olympia,  Bovril,  mustard,  elephants,  the  Haupt- 
manns.  Pa  wouldn't  look  at  them,  those  fat  freaks ;  but, 
oh,  if  he  had  them  here— and  a  whip — just  for  five  min- 
utes .  .  .  and  the  chance  of  saying  a  word  or  two ! 
To  think  that  they  were  working  at  the  Castle,  while  he 
was  puffing  out  to  the  suburbs !  And  he  racked  his  brain, 
as  he  traveled  over  the  town — that  town  which  he  had  to 
conquer  and  which  was  veiled  from  him  between-whiles 
by  the  curtain  of  posters  in  the  railway-stations,  on  the 
hoardings,  everywhere  —  again,  again;  and  imperial 
troupes  and  royal  troupes,  endless  troupes,  arrays  of 
pink  tights,  lines  of  legs  uplifted  amid  a  flight  of  scarlet 
skirts,  alternating  with  Sunlight  and  Van  Houten  and 
national  and  colonial  troupes,  loud  as  a  trumpet-blare 
and  with  nothing  behind  them,  he  dared  say 

Those  "troupes,"  those  "families"— he  turned  it  all 
over  in  his  mind — yes,  they  judged  talent  by  weight ;  the 
public  wanted  a  lot  for  its  money:  well,  why  shouldn't 
he  have  a  troupe?  Why  not?  Lily — he  had  noticed  it 
in  the  few  shows  she  had  given — Lily  didn't  cut  much  of 
a  figure  in  London :  five  stone  of  flesh  and  bones,  a  mite, 
a  minnow,  a  nothing.  Well,  if  Lily  wasn't  enough  by  her- 
self, he'd  give  them  more:  a  whole  troupe,  if  need  be! 
Why,  he'd  set  about  it  at  once ! 

With  his  customary  determination,  yielding  to  a  fixed 
idea,  he  devoted  himself  to  it.  And,  in  the  halls,  at  the 
agents',  in  the  bars,  at  the  Internationale  Artisten-Klause 
in  Lisle  Street,  that  universal  meeting-place,  Pa,  ever  on 
the  watch,  strove  to  make  people  talk,  listened  with  all  his 


CURTAIN    RISES  25 

ears,  took  notes.  It  was  very  difficult  to  get  at  the  real 
facts;  one  had  to  ferret  them  out;  the  owners  of  the 
troupes  jealously  concealed  their  methods,  endeavored  to 
put  you  off,  talked  of  apprentices  at  five  or  six  shillings  a 
day,  plus  food  and  expenses.  Pa  saw  through  these  tricks 
and,  to  arrive  at  the  truth,  discounted  the  six  shillings 
down  to  sixpence.  Lily,  her  Pa's  own  daughter,  easily 
obtained  information  from  the  apprentices  themselves 
which  she  afterward  repeated  to  him.  He  studied 
The  Era,  the  paper  of  the  Profession,  got  the  names 
by  heart:  the  managers,  the  "Pas",  the  "bosses",  the 
"profs."  He  got  acquainted  with  some  of  them  personally. 
Old  Martello,  for  instance,  the  father  of  Ave  Maria  and 
the  "Bambinis."  Martello  could  have  given  Pa  hints ;  but 
he  no  longer  interested  himself  in  anything  except  his 
Bambinis,  whom  the  poor  man,  grown  calm  with  age  and 
overwork,  was  now  spoiling.  The  rest  left  him  indiffer- 
ent; he  hardly  listened,  spoke  in  short  sentences,  like  a 
man  too  old  to  care : 

"Train  apprentices  ?  What's  the  good  ?  Run  a  troupe  ? 
Pooh,  madness'" 

Pa  thought  this  exclusive  admiration  very  touching, 
but  it  wasn't  what  he  wanted  and,  madness  or  not,  damn 
it,  he  was  resolved  to  carry  out  his  idea  to  the  end ! 

There  were  imperial  and  royal  troupes,  "Risleys,"  car- 
pet acrobats,  pyramids  of  tumblers,  some  of  them  under- 
going an  apprenticeship  of  cuffs  and  thumps.  Pa  was  not 
interested  in  these  methods,  did  not  approve  of  them ;  he 
had  never  knocked  Lily  about,  never  let  her  fall  on  pur- 
pose— "Have  I,  Lily?" — whereas  in  the  imperial  and 
royal  they  sent  the  apprentice  sprawling  on  his  back,  just 
to  teach  him,  when  he  started  wrong. 

Still,  all  these  were  boys ;  and  it  was  the  little  girls  that 


26  THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

interested  him,  for  he  meant  to  have  only  girls  among 
his  apprentices.  The  rest  wasn't  his  damned  business; 
but  the  different  troupes  of  Roofer  girls,  for  instance, 
affected  him  directly:  where  did  old  Roofer  fish  those 
girls  out?  That's  what  Pa  wanted  to  know.  He  had 
even,  in  order  to  visit  the  school,  pretended  to  bring  Lily 
as  a  pupil.  He  had  seen  the  place  in  Broad  Street,  where 
they  turned  out  "sisters"  by  the  gross ;  had  watched  the 
squads  in  knickerbockers,  scattered  over  the  immense 
room,  like  recruits  drilling  in  a  barrack-yard :  groups  en- 
gaged in  club-swinging,  juggling,  clog-dancing,  all  to- 
gether, a  tangle  of  different  movements  timed  "one,  two, 
three!"  Roofer  chose  among  the  heap,  sorted  out  the 
sizes,  called  this  lot  the  Merry  Wives,  that  lot  the  Crazy 
Things,  christened  them  after  an  insect  or  a  flower, 
packed  them  up  in  lots  of  ten  or  twelve  girls,  with  snub- 
noses  or  Greek  profiles,  as  preferred,  despatched  them, 
carriage-paid,  C.  O.  D.,  with  words,  music  and  muslin 
skirts  complete,  and  received  every  day  a  detailed  account 
of  his  Honeysuckles  and  Bees,  scattered  all  over  the 
world,  from  the  Klondike  to  Calcutta. 

This  superlative  organization  produced  upon  Pa  the 
effect  of  a  state  affair;  it  was  something  beyond  him, 
above  him ;  it  interested  him  especially  from  the  recruit- 
ing point  of  view ;  and  what  stimulated  him  above  all  was 
the  troupes  of  trick  cyclists.  He  had  seen  plenty  of  them 
in  America,  but  then,  wholly  occupied  as  he  was  with 
his  Lily,  they  did  not  interest  him,  whereas  now  he  was 
seeking  to  fathom  their  lives,  so  that  he  might  know. 
Some  of  them,  who  went  cheap,  slept  three  in  a  bed, 
niggers  and  whites  all  mixed;  others,  who  were  well 
paid,  lived  easily  and  comfortably  and  put  themselves 
forward  with  less  work  and  for  more  money  than  Lily, 


CURTAIN    RISES  27 

Lily  who  possessed  artistic  talent,  and  who  had  toiled 
harder  than  all  the  rest  of  them  put  together !  Patience, 
his  turn  would  come  .  .  .  when  she  was  a  bit  less 
thin.  And  he  would  have  the  troupe  of  troupes,  he'd 
show  them,  jolly  soon ! 

Mrs.  Clifton  was  terrified  at  her  husband's  boldness, 
but  dared  not  protest ;  however,  she  observed  that  it  was 
a  big  undertaking. 

"We  shall  have  five  apprentices,"  interrupted  Clifton, 
"six  including  Lily.  We  must  find  lodgings." 

"But,  dear    .    .    .  !" 

"Don't  you  think    .     .     .     ?" 

"Yes,  dear." 

As  for  the  apprentices,  he  would  see  to  that  to-morrow. 
Ma  suggested  that  her  sister-in-law's  daughter  might 
do,  but  Pa  wouldn't  have  relatives  at  any  price — blubber- 
ing for  a  smacking  bestowed  upon  their  daughters — he 
knew  all  about  them,  thank  you.  Let  such  sheep  bleat 
elsewhere.  No,  give  him  strangers.  He  could  be  freer 
with  them  and  get  as  many  as  he  wished.  An  advertise- 
ment in  The  Daily  Mail — "Wanted,  young  girls  for  trick 
cycling,"  followed  by  the  address — fetched  them  the  same 
day.  The  pavement  before  the  house  was  blocked  with 
white  aprons,  sailor-hats  and  tam-o'-shanters.  There 
were  consumptive-looking  girls,  long  hanks  of  girls, 
chunky  girls,  all  crowding  outside  the  door,  until  the 
landlady  drove  them  away  with  her  broom  and  threatened 
to  do  as  much  for  Pa  and  Ma  if  all  the  street-arabs  of 
London  were  to  go  on  soiling  her  nice  white  steps. 

Pa,  for  that  matter,  found  nothing  in  the  bunch,  not 
one  in  twenty  that  was  any  good ;  or  else  they  made  ex- 
horbitant  demands — two  shillings  a  day  those  gutter- 
snipes expected — as  though  shillings  were  to  be  had  for 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 


the  asking!  But  why  look  so  far?  There  were  girls, 
sometimes,  at  the  back  entrances  of  the  theaters:  stage- 
struck  kids  who  devoured  Lily  with  their  eyes  and  looked 
at  Pa  as  though  to  say,  "Take  me,  take  me!"  That's 
what  he  wanted,  damn  it,  girls  who  had  the  business  in 

their  blood  and 
who  wouldn't 
go  whining  over 
a  p  r  ofessional 
slap  or  two, 
which  he  dared 
say  he'd  have 
to  distribute  to 
make  up  for  lost 
time. 

The  first  girl 
whom  he  en- 
gaged he  had  al- 
ready seen  gaz- 
i  n  g  ecstatically 
at  Lily,  as  they 
left  the  theater, 
far  away  down 
the  Mile  End 
Road,  and  he 
saw  her  again, 
one  morning,  in 
front  of  his 
house  in  the  very  heart  of  London !  He  could  not  believe 
his  eyes.  She  must  have  followed  his  scent,  slept  on  the 
threshold  like  a  lost  dog.  Her  Pa?  Gone  away.  Her 
Ma?  Dead.  Her  name?  Maud.  Her  age?  Didn't 
know.  Born  somewhere  in  the  immensity  of  White- 


"TAKE  ME,  TAKE  ME! 


CURTAIN    RISES  29 

chapel,  towheaded,  round-faced.  Nothing  to  eat  for  two 
days.  She'd  do!  He  would  go  to  the  police-court,  get 
the  license  later;  meantime,  he  netted  her  and  that  was 
one! 

As  regards  the  others,  he  had  to  make  a  selection.  He 
chose  them  by  preference  in  families  which  were  over- 
stocked with  brats,  so  that  one  more  or  less,  in  the  heap, 
made  no  difference.  He  got  one  this  way;  that  made 
two!  Next,  a  "local  girl,"  seized  with  ambition,  came 
and  offered  herself.  Three!  He  found  two  others:  a 
little  Beak  Street  shop-girl  and  a  Shoreditch  Jewess. 
That  made  five.  It  did  not  take  him  long  to  judge  the 
girls.  He  gave  them  a  few  days'  trial  before  signing  a 
contract;  and  what  an  anxiety  for  them,  Mr.  Clifton's 
final  decision!  If  one  trembled  too  much,  was  caught 
holding  Pa's  shoulder  for  no  reason,  for  fear  of  falling, 
or  blubbered  because  of  a  scratch  on  the  skin,  her  fate 
was  settled. 

"Pack  up,  my  lady,"  Pa  would  say  quite  calmly. 

There  was  no  getting  out  of  it :  off  she  had  to  go,  be- 
fore dinner,  and  home  she  went,  through  the  gloomy 
streets,  after  a  brief  glimpse  of  paradise. 

He  had  to  replace  some  of  them:  they  were  slack;  or 
else,  independent  at  times,  they  looked  at  him  for  the 
least  push,  as  if  they  would  fly  at  his  throat.  He  asked 
himself  whether  he  wouldn't  be  compelled  to  get  some 
over  from  Germany  or  else  to  pick  up  on  the  highroads, 
in  the  Gipsies'  caravans,  children  with  skins  tanned  like 
donkeys',  a  troupe  of  blackamoors  on  wheels,  who, 
perched  up  on  the  handle-bars  of  the  bikes,  would 
have  looked  like  cockroaches  mounted  as  brooches, 
damn  it ! 

However,  by  dint  of  selection,  he  ended  by  having 


30  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

only  good  ones  left ;  and  then  he  made  a  contract  in  due 
form  with  the  parents  for  three  years,  or  even  five,  such 
was  his  faith  in  the  future.  A  few  pence  a  week  to  the 
family,  a  few  pence  to  the  baggage  herself :  he  to  dress, 
lodge  and  board  her  and  engage  to  make  an  artiste  of  her. 
Everything  was  provided  for:  during  the  training,  just 
the  board  and  the  rest ;  when  she  began  to  work,  a  shilling 
a  day  in  addition.  Over  and  above,  she  would  be  looked 
after  by  a  lady,  Mrs.  Clifton.  Was  that  all  right?  Both 
parties  signed;  the  girl  was  an  artiste,  became  a  New 
Zealander. 

They  brought  their  little  wardrobe :  one  spare  chemise, 
on  the  average,  one  pair  of  stockings;  their  only  pro- 
tection against  the  weather  was  the  dress  they  had  on,  a 
factory-girl's  ulster  and  a  tam-o'-shanter.  Later  on, 
when  performing,  they  would  be  entitled  to  a  celluloid 
collar,  satinette  knickers  and  pumps. 

Pa,  though  at  first  he  took  one  extra  room  and  then 
two  in  the  same  house  and  though  he  also  made  his  ap- 
prentices sleep  three  in  a  bed,  Pa  soon  found  himself 
cramped.  It  would  have  been  nice  to  have  a  little  house 
somewhere  in  good  air,  next  door  to  the  country.  But 
there  was  one  thing  which  made  Pa  decide  to  remain  in 
the  West  Central  district.  Jimmy,  the  young  electrician 
with  whom  Lily  used  to  chat  on  shipboard,  had  given  up 
traveling.  Harrasford  and  his  architect  had  noticed  him 
on  board  and  the  great  man  had  engaged  him  to  manage 
the  electric  installation  of  his  theaters.  Jimmy  had  taken 
possession  of  a  lodging  in  Gresse  Street,  Tottenham  Court 
Road.  He  slept  over  the  shop,  which,  for  the  rest,  served 
him  rather  as  a  place  in  which  to  keep  the  tools  for  his 
outside  work.  Pa  often  ran  upon  him  in  the  neighbor- 
hood and  had  a  nodding  acquaintance  with  him  which 


CURTAIN    RISES 


31 


turned  out  to  be  useful,  as  Jimmy,  being  in  Harrasford's 
employment,  was  more  or  less  at  home  in  the  variety- 
theaters  and  nothing  was  easier  than  for  him  to  obtain 
leave  for  Clifton  to  practise  on  the  stage.  This  it  was 
that  persuaded  Clifton  to  settle  in  the  west  end.  In  any 
case,  it  would  be  cheaper 
than  dragging  the  six 
girls  and  himself  daily 
from  one  end  of  London 
to  the  other.  The  house 
in  which  he  took  up  his 
quarters,  in  Rathbone 
Place,  quite  close  to 
Jimmy,  was  small  and 
dark,  but  not  dear.  The 
upper  story  was  occu- 
pied by  people  who  were 
out  all  day  and  the  base- 
ment served  as  a  lumber 
room.  They  would  feel 
quite  at  home  here  .  .  . 
with  no  old  sheep  to 
listen  at  the  keyholes. 

And  then  he  would 
have  slept  in  the  parks, 
if  necessary,  anywhere,  rather  than  waste  more  precious 
time!  His  Lily,  his  troupe,  before  everything.  What  he 
had  to  do  was  to  get  a  move  on.  He  went  so  far  as 
to  engage  a  boy,  a  shoeblack  at  the  corner  of  Oxford 
Street  and  Tottenham  Court  Road  for  the  rest  of  the 
time,  to  attend  to  the  bikes  and  the  girls  at  practice. 

Pa  gave  his  mind  to  the  gear,  the  expenses,  the  general 
business.    Ma  saw  to  good  order,  to  domestic  discipline. 


TOM,  THE  SHOEBLACK 


32  THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

It  was  no  longer  the  quiet  life  of  a  Pa  and  Ma  trotting 
round  the  world  in  the  company  of  their  one  and  only 
bread-winning  star.  As  for  Lily,  the  daughter  of  the 
boss  and  manager,  she  owed  a  good  example  to  one  and 
all.  In  the  morning,  with  Maud,  she  went  down  to  the 
kitchen,  lit  the  stove,  made  the  coffee.  Next,  she  carried 
up  the  breakfast  to  Pa  and  Ma  in  bed,  then  distributed 
their  rations  to  the  famished  girls.  And  off  they  went, 
all  six  of  them,  with  Pa  following  at  their  heels. 

The  stage-door  gave  the  apprentices  a  thrill  the  first 
day  they  entered.  The  passage,  gently  sloping,  tall  and 
wide,  because  of  the  scenery,  smelt  of  elephants  and 
cheap  scent.  It  was  blocked  with  properties,  with  queer- 
shaped  cases,  flat  as  a  slab  or  round  as  a  ball.  There 
were  long,  narrow  boxes,  for  the  horizontal  bars ;  some- 
times a  row  of  wicker  coffins,  with  a  ventriloquist's  figures 
inside.  And  labels  from  everywhere — Melbourne,  Chi- 
cago, Berlin,  Lisbon — and  "Rlys."  and  "S.  S."  that  made 
you  feel  in  the  hold  of  a  liner,  off  to  foreign  ports. 

At  the  end,  beyond  an  iron  door,  was  the  stage,  very 
dark,  pricked  here  and  there  with  electric  lamps.  There 
were  things  that  glittered  with  spangles.  To  the  girls 
it  seemed  like  the  Kingdom  of  Puss-in-Boots  or  Blue- 
Beard  ;  but  to  Lily  it  was  an  old  story.  She  was  a  little 
like  the  school-girl  in  the  good  days  long  past,  for  whom 
the  master  was  always  waiting,  cane  in  hand.  The  rest 
she  didn't  care  about. 

Nevertheless,  huge  as  the  stage  was,  there  was  not 
always  room  to  practise:  ponies  or  elephants  would 
monopolize  it  for  hours  at  a  time.  Or  else,  when  Roofer 
was  supplying  a  ballet,  he  took  up  the  whole  stage,  all 
day  long:  Lily,  secretly  delighted,  sat  down  modestly  in 
a  corner,  so  as  to  be  in  no  one's  way.  Roofer  made  his 


CURTAIN   RISES  33 

collection  of  calves  and  ankles  flutter  about,  followed 
the  new  dances  with  an  expert  eye,  throwing  his  hat 
back  on  his  head,  mopping  his  forehead,  grumbling,  find- 
ing fault: 

"Don't  eat  chocolates  while  you're  dancing,  you,  Eva! 
Hi,  you,  Gwendolen !" 

And,  to  emphasize  his  remarks,  he  threw  his  felt  hat  at 
them. 

"Silly  old  ass!"  thought  Pa,  with  a  grin.  "To  think 
you  can  train  artistes  like  that.  You'll  use  up  fifty  hats, 
you  old  fool,  while  my  belt  remains  as  good  as  new !" 

For  that  was  now  Pa's  system,  the  strap — "a  la 
Mexico !" — not  that  he  used  it  often  nor  very  hard ;  but 
he  terrorized  Lily  with  it  and  the  other  girls  were  afraid 
of  it,  too,  though  they  never  got  more  than  the  threat, 
seeing  that  they  were  apprentices,  who  might  have  run 
away  if  he  had  struck  out. 

All  this  did  not  prevent  them  from  working  with  a 
will — trot,  trot,  trot — when  there  was  no  Roofer  on  the 
stage  and  no  elephants  or  ponies:  yoop,  on  to  the  bikes 
and  the  fun  began!  The  sight  of  Pa  training  his  star 
made  the  apprentices  shake  in  their  knickers.  Lily  was 
to  do  everything  and  to  do  it  very  well :  Pa  ran  after  her, 
in  a  never-ending  circle,  and,  from  the  corner  of  his  eye, 
watched  Tom,  who  held  the  girls  and  made  them  work, 
upon  his  instructions ;  and  when  they  got  off  their  bikes 
to  wipe  their  foreheads : 

"Bravo,  Miss  Woolly-legs!"  said  Pa  sarcastically. 
"Tired,  eh?  Dead,  eh?  Suppose  you  tried  to  get  up 
again  .  .  .  and  be  quick  about  it!  And  as  for  you, 
Tom,  don't  let  them  fall,  or  I'll  catch  you  one  on  the  side 
of  the  head!" 

For  Pa  already  knew  by  experience  that  their  little 


34.  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

ladyships  shirked  work ;  that  they  shook  with  fright ;  that 
they  lost  confidence  after  a  bad  fall ;  and  that  then  it  was 
finished,  nothing  to  be  done  with  them :  they'd  let  them- 
selves be  killed  sooner. 

Maud,  for  instance,  that  Jonah,  ever  after  one  day  she 
had  seen  her  blood  flow,  trembled  before  her  bike  like  a 
sheep  that  scents  the  slaughter-house.  It  was  no  use 
Pa's  threatening  her  with  his  belt:  she  wouldn't  let  her- 
self go,  on  the  contrary,  held  on  to  everything,  no  matter 
what,  for  fear  of  falling.  He  ought  to  have  sent  her 
away  long  ago;  he  would  pack  her  off  that  very  night 
.  .  .  and  made  no  bones  about  telling  her  so,  that 
Jonah ! 

Then  Pa,  giving  Lily  a  rest,  occupied  himself  with  the 
girls :  taught  them  the  principle  of  the  standstill,  of  side- 
riding,  of  the  "swan,"  of  the  "frog."  And, — quickly  ! — 
the  indefatigable  Pa  went  back  to  Lily,  made  her  begin 
a  trick  ten  times,  twenty  times  over,  so  great  was  his 
rage  at  the  lost  time,  the  elephants,  the  Hauptmanns, 
Roofer.  He  pulled  faces,  clenched  his  fists : 

"Why  don't  you  do  as  I  say  when  I  tell  you,  damn  it !" 

"But,  Pa,  I  can't !"  protested  Lily. 

"You  can,  if  you  like,"  said  Pa,  exasperated  this  time 
and  unbuckling  his  belt. 

Crash !  A  heap  behind  him,  a  medley  of  limbs  and  steel 
fittings !  Maud,  who  was  still  trying,  on  her  bike,  startled 
by  Pa's  threatening  movement,  had  fallen  flat  down. 

"Maud  again !  That  damned  Jonah !"  cried  Pa,  going 
up  to  her.  "Well,  Miss  Woolly-legs,  do  you  mean  to 
stay  there  all  night  ?" 

But  she  did  not  move ;  and,  when  they  had  disentan- 
gled her  from  the  bike,  Pa  saw  an  eye  that  was  quite  red 
and  a  little  stream  of  blood  trickling  down  her  cheek. 


CURTAIN    RISES  35 

"Let's  look !"  said  Pa  anxiously. 

A  spoke  sprung  from  the  felly  had  scratched  her  eye. 

It  was  a  serious  accident.  Sprained  wrists,  barked 
shins  didn't  count ;  but  a  spoke  in  the  eye  .  .  .  Luck- 
ily, Maud  had  no  relations ;  there  was  no  claim  to  be 
feared :  not  a  vestige  of  old  sheep  on  the  mother's  side. 
Pa  said  all  this  to  himself  as  he  ran  to  the  chemist,  and 
Lily  consoled  poor  Maud  as  best  she  could,  said  that, 
after  all,  it  was  part  of  the  game :  she'd  know  better  an- 
other time,  eh  ?  She'd  be  a  great  star  yet,  eh,  Maud  ? 

The  poor  maimed  thing  lifted  her  face  to  Lily,  stam- 
mered through  her  tears  that  it  was  nothing  ...  all 
right  again  now  .  .  .  Pa's  fault,  with  his  belt. 

"For  a  little  thing  like  that!"  said  Lily,  laughing. 
"Fancy  falling  from  your  bike  for  that !  Why,  I'd  rather 
have  twenty  'contracts  on  the  back'  than  lose  an  eye." 

For  that  was  what  it  amounted  to.  Pa  realized  it,  after 
he  had  dressed  the  wound.  Clifton's  mind  was  not  at 
ease :  a  glass  eye  was  not  a  very  difficult  matter  .  .  . 
but,  who  knows,  some  callous  person  might  inform  Har- 
rasford,  who  stood  no  nonsense  on  that  subject.  Fortu- 
nately the  artistes  present  had  not  paid  much  attention 
.  .  .  had  hardly  noticed  anything,  in  the  dim  light  of 
the  stage  .  .  . 

And  soon  after  the  New  Zealanders  were  walking  back 
to  Rathbone  place  with  Maud  in  their  midst,  her  head  a 
roll  of  bandages,  leaning  on  Lily's  arm. 

It  was  a  pathetic  home-coming.  Ma  had  told  them 
what  would  happen!  That  would  teach  them  to  take  in 
vagabonds  from  the  streets.  Mrs.  Clifton  thought  that, 
in  a  respectable  house  .  .  . 

"That'll  do,"  said  Pa,  dropping  into  the  easy-chair  in 
the  dining-room.  "I'm  worn  out.  If  you'd  been  like  me, 


36  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Mrs.  Clifton,  running  after  those  Woolly-legs  all  the 
morning" — and  he  pointed  to  the  apprentices  standing 
round  the  table — "gee,  you  wouldn't  talk  so  much !  I'll 
take  Maud  to  the  hospital  this  afternoon;  it's  only  a 
trifle.  Is  dinner  ready?" 

"Yes,  dear." 

"Come  along,  then,  all  of  you  Woolly-legs,"  said  Pa 
jovially. 

Pa  was  sorry  for  poor  Maud,  as  a  rule,  but  he  felt  a 
need  to  shed  a  little  gaiety,  to  extenuate  the  accident  as  far 
as  possible,  to  turn  it  into  a  joke,  so  as  to  prevent  his  girls 
from  being  panic-stricken.  He  talked  of  heads  smashed 
to  a  jelly,  of  legs  in  smithereens,  of  a  bicyclist  who  had 
had  not  one,  but  both  eyes  caught  in  the  chain.  As 
for  himself,  when  he  was  a  small  boy — that  was  in  the 
time  when  they  brought  up  artistes,  real  ones,  mind 
you;  not,  as  nowadays,  on  sugar  and  sweets;  no,  real 
ones,  on  the  whip  and  the  stick,  damn  it ! — why,  the  acci- 
dents which  he'd  seen !  Yes,  he  himself,  to  go  no  farther, 
he  could  have  shown  them,  here,  there,  there,  here,  damn 
it,  all  over  his  body,  scars  deep  enough  to  put  your  finger 
in! 

"Eh?  Frightens  you,  does  it?  Never  fear,"  added  Pa, 
in  a  good-humored  voice,  "that  sort  of  thing  won't  hap- 
pen to  any  of  you  Woolley-legs ;  a  good  Irish  stew  is  bet- 
ter than  a  kick  of  the  pedal,  eh  ?" 

And  Pa,  after  a  last  cup  of  strong  tea,  dismissed  the 
girls,  lit  his  pipe,  threw  himself  into  the  easy-chair,  with 
his  legs  long  out  in  front  of  him ;  but  soon : 

"Well,  Maud,  what  is  it?  What  are  you  crying  for 
now?  I  tell  you,  I'll  buy  you  a  glass  one,"  said  Pa,  at 
the  sight  of  Maud,  who  blubbered  silently  and  sat  glued 
to  her  chair  instead  of  getting  up  to  go. 

Poor  lost  dog!    Clifton,  at  the  theater,  had  threatened 


CURTAIN    RISES  37 

to  send  her  away.     She  knew  what  that  meant:  leaving 
Miss  Lily,  losing  those  good  meals.     .     .     . 

Maud  faltered  something  about  packing  up ;  pain  in  her 
eye ;  not  her  fault. 

"So  what  you  want  is  to  stay  with  us  ?"  asked  Pa. 

"Oh!"  gasped  Maud. 

"Well,  then,  stay!  But  no  more  bike;  you  shall  be 
Lily's  lady's  maid,"  said  Pa,  puffing  at  his  pipe. 

It  went  down  so  well,  as  an  effort  of  dry  humor,  that 
Ma  could  not  help  laughing.  But  Mr.  Clifton  was  talking 
seriously.  Then  Ma,  amazed,  protested :  what,  a  serv- 
ant in  her  house!  A  lady's  maid  for  Lily!  He  would 
end  by  giving  her  the  moon!  And  what  would  Lily  do 
all  day?  She'd  sit  twiddling  her  thumbs!  Had  Mr. 
Clifton  thought  of  that? 

Yes,  Mr.  Clifton  had  thought  of  it.  He  was  too  tired 
to  explain  his  reasons ;  but  take  it  from  him,  it  was  best 
like  that.  Pa,  in  fact,  feared  lest  that  smashed  eye  might 
prove  a  worry  to  him :  the  papers  weren't  in  order.  He 
had  made  no  declaration  to  the  police;  there  was  the 
Workmen's  Compensation  Act.  .  .  .  Much  better 
keep  Maud  safe  in  the  house,  for  a  while  .  .  . 

"Lily  won't  sit  twiddling  her  thumbs  for  all  that,  will 
you,  Lily?"  continued  Pa,  smiling  to  his  star. 

A  touch  of  the  brush  and  comb,  a  stroll  through  the 
streets  with  the  girls,  by  leave  of  Pa,  who  wished  Lily 
to  take  the  air,  then  home  again,  more  housework. 
.  .  .  The  apprentices,  who  did  not  yet  perform  in 
public,  were  sent  to  bed  early,  while  Lily,  escorted  by  Pa, 
went  off  to  East,  West,  South  .or  North  London.  An 
hour  to  get  there;  then  undress,  dress,  appear  on  the 
stage  under  Pa's  eye,  undress  and  dress  again;  another 
hour  to  get  back ;  a  morsel  of  cold  Irish  stew,  a  cup  of 
tea ;  and  drowsily  up  to  her  room  and  bed  .  .  . 


CHAPTER  II 

"Lily!" 

Ma's  voice  woke  her  with  a  start  in  the  morning.  Lily 
dressed  quickly  and  quickly  ran  down-stairs  to  the  kitchen, 
where  Maud  had  gone  before  her;  and  it  was  the  same 
thing  every  day,  except  on  tour,  when  discipline  was  less 
strict.  It  had  gone  on  for  months  and  months,  for  two 
years,  ever  since  they  came  to  London.  Pa,  with  his  iron 
will,  had  overcome  everything.  He  felt  at  home  in  the  old 
country,  at  last.  After  his  engagements  in  the  London 
suburbs,  he  had  obtained  a  triumph  at  the  Castle,  a  Bill 
and  Boom  tour  of  forty  weeks,  a  season  at  Blackpool, 
the  Harrasford  tour  now,  successes  everywhere.  Before 
his  boyish  little  girls,  before  his  own  particular  troupe, 
the  fat  freaks  trembled  in  their  knickers!  For  Clifton, 
the  new-comer,  but  yesterday  unknown,  it  was  an  un- 
hoped-for success  and  fame  and  fortune. 

Ma  nearly  always  remained  in  London  with  Maud. 
Lily  was  not  big  enough  yet  to  need  the  supervision  of 
a  Ma.  Therefore,  on  tour, — when  she  was  not  practising 
with  her  Pa, — Lily  did  the  catering,  saw  to  the  porridge 
and  the  Irish  stew ;  Pa  was  not  hard  to  please.  Provided 
Lily  was  "great"  on  the  stage,  he  asked  for  nothing  more. 
Dishes  burned  for  want  of  butter,  salad  mixed  in  the 
wash-hand  basin :  he  swallowed  everything  with  an  appe- 
tite, ate  standing,  with  his  plate  on  the  trunk,  or  else 
seated  with  the  girls  round  a  little  table  hardly  large 

38 


CURTAIN    RISES  39 

enough  for  three.  This  Bohemian  life  pleased  him.  He 
loved  youth,  gaiety  and  good  fellowship.  He  was  fond 
of  a  laugh,  took  Lily  on  his  knee  after  dinner,  played 
with  her,  praised  her  home-made  cakes,  her  tough  chops, 
and  then  began  talking  bike  to  Lily  .  .  .  who  hated 
bikes,  and  who  got  something  different  from  a  hat  flung 
at  her,  when  she  missed  a  trick. 

No  matter,  hard  as  it  was,  she  preferred  touring  to 
staying  in  London.  The  work  was  the  same,  but,  at 
least,  it  was  a  change.  She  was  spoiled  by  every  one, 
down  to  that  landlady  who  cried  wrhen  she  left.  .  .  . 
After  all  there  were  many  worse  off  than  she,  everlast- 
ingly set  about  by  "profs,"  confined  to  their  rooms  all 
day  to  practise  their  balancing ;  she  had  had  a  taste  of  it 
in  New  York;  no,  thank  you!  She  preferred  having 
good  times  with  the  girls,  practical  jokes,  boxing- 
matches  even,  scrimmages,  pillow-fights.  In  the  board- 
ing-houses, they  flirted  with  the  boys;  they  kept  pet 
pigeons,  white  mice,  a  lizard ;  they  exchanged  secrets, 
stories  of  every  country,  professionals  all!  Some- 
times, they  consoled  one  another;  promised  to  send 
kisses — x  x  x— on  post-cards.  And  then  there  were  new 
faces,  always;  a  week  in  each  town,  no  longer;  a  real 
life  of  adventure  from  one  end  of  England  to  the 
other.  Now  it  wasn't  like  that  in  London ;  she  felt  less 
free  there.  Ma  was  particular  and  hard  to  please ;  there 
were  no  pillow-fights,  no  romps ;  Ma  hated  those  ways. 
The  stage,  yes,  she  put  up  with  that  because  it  was  Lily's 
profession ;  but  one  came  in  contact  with  all  sorts  there ; 
and  that  little  devil  of  a  Lily  was  wicked  enough  already ! 
It  took  all  the  home  influence  to  thwart  the  bad  examples 
which  she  received  outside;  and  it  was  Ma's  business  to 
see  to  it. 


40  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

The  house  in  Rathbone  Place  had  been  smartened  up. 
There  was  a  dining-room  which  was  used  only  for  meals 
and  which  never  had  a  bed  put  into  it  at  night.  There 
were  things  on  what-nots :  little  photograph-frames,  loose 
photographs,  lucky  charms,  china  cups;  all  shining  and 
bright,  thanks  to  the  adjunction  of  a  lady's  maid,  as  Pa 
called  Maud,  in  his  funny  way.  At  first,  after  the  accident, 
it  was  terrible.  Her  natural  awkwardness  was  made  worse 
by  a  glass  eye ;  she  could  not  tell  one  side  from  the  other, 
spilt  the  tea  on  the  cloth,  broke  the  crockery.  Maud  did 
the  heavy  work,  washed  and  scrubbed  all  day  long. 
When  the  girls  were  in  London,  she  went  with  them  to 
the  theater,  as  dresser.  Maud  stood  in  the  wings  and 
admired  the  New  Zealanders  whirling  about  in  the  light. 
She  stretched  out  her  face  in  ecstasy  toward  Lily:  that 
Lily  who  had  traveled  everywhere,  who  was  born  so  far 
away,  in  a  land  full  of  monkeys  and  parrots.  She  fol- 
lowed Lily  to  her  dressing-room,  trotted  after  her  like  a 
dog,  worshiped  her  open-mouthed. 

Lily  had  ripened  out,  was  becoming  more  beautiful, 
more  of  a  woman  daily,  despite  the  fact  that  her  Pa  still 
treated  her  like  a  kid.  She  no  longer  looked  at  things 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  child-girl  who  had  been 
delighted  with  a  satin  hair-ribbon  in  India;  now  her 
pride  was  not  appeased  with  such  trifles.  Ma,  according 
to  Lily,  seemed  ashamed  of  her,  dressed  her  badly :  an 
odd  skirt  here,  an  odd  frock  there,  of  a  cheap  make. 
That  was  not  what  Lily  wanted.  She  was  an  artiste :  she 
wanted  a  hat  with  big  feathers  and  a  gown  with  gold 
braid  to  it ;  but,  when  she  showed  Ma  a  dress  which  she 
liked  in  the  shop  windows,  Ma  would  exclaim : 

"What  do  you  want  with  that?  My  poor  Lily,  you 
must  be  mad !  That's  for  rich  little  girls,  girls  who  have 


CURTAIN    RISES 


time  to  be  pretty ;  it  wouldn't  suit  you  at  all.  Why,  if  we 
listened  to  you,  we'd  soon  be  in  the  workhouse !" 

Ma  always  said  no,  pretending  that  she  had  no  money ; 
whereas  Lily  knew  to  the  contrary.    She  knew  that  the 
troupe  earned  a  great  deal  and  that  the  troupe  was  her- 
self.  The  other  day,  at  the 
theater,  she  had  heard  her 
aunt,  who  felt  bitter  that 
Mr.    Clifton    had    not    ac- 
cepted her  daughter  Daisy 
— who  could  have  learned 
the  business  and  later  on 
have  starred  by  herself! — 
she   had    heard   that   "old 
sheep"  say,  speaking  of 
her: 

"What  a  shame  to  dress 
her  like  that!  A  girl  who 
brings  them  in  capital  to 
invest !" 

So  Pa  was  investing 
capital.  She  didn't  exactly 
know  what  investing  capi- 
tal meant;  no  doubt  it 
meant  making  a  lot  of 
money.  She  asked  for 
none  of  it!  Children  be- 
long to  their  parents !  But 
she  would  have  liked  to  be 

treated  with  more  consideration,  to  be  spoiled ;  to  get 
presents,  nice  things.  She  had  plenty  from  her  Pa,  true 
enough:  presents,  my!  But  they  were  cheap  gifts,  for 
all  that,  ,  .  .  She  was  always  having  promises  made 


P.T.  CLIFTON,  MANAGER 


42  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

her  of  more  important  things;  and  the  promises  were 
never  kept :  that  big  gold  watch,  for  instance.  She  had 
a  thirsting  for  luxury.  It  seemed  to  her  that  she  was 
being  treated  like  a  performing  dog,  not  a  bit  better. 
Ma,  without  exactly  knowing,  but  with  an  infallible  in- 
stinct, saw  all  this  budding  under  that  obstinate  brow. 
Mr.  Clifton  might  see  nothing  in  it;  but  it  was  not  so 
easy  to  take  in  a  mother!  Was  there  a  love  affair  be- 
neath it  all,  Ma  asked  herself.  No,  not  yet;  it  might 
come  later  on,  as  with  that  apprentice  who  had  run  away, 
or  that  other  one  whom  she  had  had  to  send  packing  for 
being  too  free  with  men.  But  Lily  would  not  leave  them 
like  that. 

She  did  not  let  her  go  out.  "Glass-eye  Maud"  ran  the 
errands  and  Lily  stayed  at  home,  like  a  good  little  girl 
of  whom  her  mother  wished  to  make  a  lady.  When  she 
did  happen  to  go  out,  she  must  not  be  long,  or  else  it 
was,  "Where  have  you  been  ?  Tell  me  at  once !"  At  the 
theater,  when  Pa  lost  his  temper,  she  could  reckon  on  a 
mighty  fillip,  and  then  it  was  over :  Pa  was  sorry,  rather 
than  otherwise.  Ma,  on  the  contrary,  would  nag  for 
hours ;  muttered  inarticulate  phrases  about  "devil," 
"wild  bull,"  and  "taming  her;"  there  was  no  end  to  it. 
Lily  champed  the  bit!  A  star,  indeed!  Was  that  being 
a  star  ?  She  thought  differently !  She  had  seen  others 
drive  up  to  the  theater  in  their  motors,  accompanied 
by  gentlemen  carrying  flowers,  like  that  famous  "M'dlle" 
at  the  Palace.  Yes,  those  were  stars :  they  dined  at  the 
Horse  Shoe  and  did  not  spend  their  time  in  useless 
housework.  Oh,  she  was  quite  sick  and  tired  of  that  life ! 
She'd  had  enough  of  it.  Meanwhile,  the  days  passed 
and  the  weeks  and  it  was  always  the  same  thing :  house- 
work and  stage- work ;  work,  work,  work  .  .  . 


CURTAIN    RISES  43 

It  was  late  that  morning;  they  were  not  practising. 
Pa  had  run  down  on  the  previous  day  to  see  a  troupe  of 
cyclists,  the  famous  Pawnees,  who  were  back  from  the 
Continent,  on  their  way  to  New  York,  and  performing 
that  week  at  the  Brighton  Hippodrome.  Lily  was  in  her 
room  later  than  usual,  as  Ma  was  not  awake.  Maud 
had  gone  down  to  the  kitchen.  The  apprentices  were 
getting  up,  joking  with  one  another,  like  tomboys  used 
to  sharing  the  same  bed  at  home,  the  same  room  at  the 
theater,  to  dressing,  undressing,  splashing  about  naked 
in  the  same  bath-tub. 

"Get  up,  Lily,"  said  one  of  them,  laughing  and  raising 
her  sturdy  little  hand.  "Get  up,  or  .  .  .  " 

"No,"  said  Lily,  "let  me  alone,  I'm  dead." 

As  it  happened,  on  the  day  before  there  had  been  a 
general  tumble,  six  in  a  row,  on  the  back-wheel ;  one  of 
them,  losing  her  balance,  had  dragged  the  others  with 
her  and  the  lot  had  fallen  flat  in  a  tangle  of  steel  and 
flesh.  Bucking  Horse,  Old  Jigger,  Street  Donkey — the 
nicknames  they  gave  their  bikes — had  kicked  them  to  the 
raw.  They  showed  one  another  the  bruises  on  their 
limbs:  "Oh,  don't  it  hurt,  just!"  "What  about  mine?" 
"Look  here!"  like  young  recruits  bragging  of  their 
wounds  after  the  skirmish. 

"Lily!" 

"Yes,  Ma!" 

And  Lily  washed  quickly,  put  on  her  frock  and  ran 
down-stairs  to  prepare  the  coffee,  but  her  Ma  stopped 
her  on  her  way. 

"Lily,  you  light  the  fire." 

"What  about  Maud?"  said  Lily.  "Why  can't  Maud 
do  it?" 

"You  young  impudence,"     .     .     .     said  Ma;  "Maud 


44  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

has  gone  to  Jimmy's  to  take  the  bike  which  Tom  couldn't 
get  to  him  yesterday;  he  was  shut.  It's  the  bike  you 
spoiled,  you  little  bedlamite!" 

Lily  had  to  laugh  at  the  thought  of  Maud  struggling 
with  Old  Jigger:  Maud,  who  couldn't  lead  the  machine 
by  the  handle-bar,  or  even  walk  beside  it,  without  bark- 
ing her  shins. 

"Why !"  cried  Lily.  "She'll  explain  everything  wrong 
to  Jimmy,  and  the  bike  will  be  no  use!" 

"Well,  then,  go  yourself,"  said  Ma,  after  a  pause. 
"And  mind  you,  come  back  quickly ;  don't  go  loitering  in 
the  street ;  and  don't  stay  long  with  that  drunkard." 

"Yes,  Ma." 

Gresse  Street,  where  Jimmy  lived,  was  quite  as  dreary 
as  Rathbone  Place :  here  and  there,  a  few  posters  on  the 
walls;  some  low-fronted  shops,  displaying  sweets  and 
candies,  or  else  a  dazzling  case  of  oranges  on  the  muddy 
pavement;  alleys,  stables,  cab-yards.  .  .  . 

It  was  here  that  Jimmy  had  his  workshop,  or  rather 
his  tool-store,  for  he  did  not  do  much  work  there.  The 
time  which  his  occupation  at  the  theater  left  him  he  de- 
voted to  improving  himself.  Electricity  and  its  manifold 
uses  held  his  interest.  There  was  no  doubt  that,  had 
he  given  all  his  time  to  it,  he  would  have  become  very 
clever,  for  he  had  an  inventor's  brain  and,  moreover, 
possessed  an  astonishing  manual  skill  for  altering  and 
perfecting  things.  He  worked  in  copper  and  steel,  was 
glad  to  make  and  repair  bikes  for  a  few  customers,  the 
New  Zealanders,  among  others.  While  working,  he 
brewed  all  manner  of  plans  in  his  brain.  They  all  re- 
vealed a  practical  intelligence.  Saddle-supports  which 
reduced  the  shaking  on  a  bike,  improved  carriage-springs 
and  so  on ;  and,  on  the  stage,  inventions  to  dispense  with 


CURTAIN    RISES  45 

men  in  the  flies  and  wings;  to  work  everything1 — scen- 
ery, curtain,  lime-light — by  means  of  the  switchboard; 
and  ever  so  many  other  things.  .  .  . 

Since  joining  the  theater,  Jimmy  had  naturally  under- 
gone the  influence  of  the  stage.  It  had  affected  his  ideas, 
with  all  its  new-fangled  "turns,"  which  owed  their  suc- 
cess to  a  maximum  of  daring — or  bluff — coupled  with  a 
minimum  of  scientific  knowledge :  illusionists  basing  their 
effects  upon  the  reflections  of  invisible  mirrors  and  the 
cunning  use  of  combined  lights ;  "looping  the  loop,"  "cir- 
cles of  death,"  in  which  sheer  weight  did  the  cyclist's 
work  for  him,  his  arrival  at  a  given  point  depending 
upon  his  accelerated  and  calculated  speed.  From  seeing 
so  many  of  this  sort  scouring  the  world- — erstwhile  acro- 
bats, former  laboratory-students,  who  now,  venturing  all 
and  risking  all,  topped  the  bills  at  the  music-halls — Jimmy, 
greatly  interested  in  this  scientific  side,  had  himself  made 
researches  in  that  direction.  Engineering  and  other 
journals  had  printed  some  of  his  schemes,  including 
that  of  an  apparatus  based  upon  the  notion  of  exte- 
rior ballistics:  the  resistance  of  the  air  proportional 
to  the  square  of  the  velocity  and,  according  to  this  ve- 
locity, the  exact  proportion  of  the  angle  of  incidence  to 
the  angle  of  projection.  Theoretically,  it  was  perfect ;  in 
reality  there  might  be  some  unexpected  hitch.  It  was 
a  question  for  the  venturesome  performer,  who  allowed 
himself  to  be  projected  by  a  series  of  powerful  springs, 
to  fall  accurately  from  pedestal  to  pedestal,  preserving  a 
faultless  balance ;  in  a  word,  to  risk  his  life  six  times  in 
as  many  seconds.  The  daring  of  a  Laurence  and  the 
agility  of  a  Lily  combined  would  not  have  been  enough 
for  the  task ;  and  so  Jimmy  had  prudently  contented  him- 
self with  pinning  his  diagrams  on  the  walls  of  the  work- 


46  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

shop  and  dismissing  the  idea  from  his  mind.  Not  that 
he  was  afraid,  rather  not ;  but  simply  because  it  appeared 
impossible  to  him. 

Other  plans  had  interested  him,  besides;  flying  ma- 
chines, for  instance,  etc.  He  was  a  real  enthusiast  about 
flying  machines !  One  day,  perhaps,  when  he  knew  more 
.  .  .  to  say  nothing  of  the  theater,  which  did  not 
leave  him  much  leisure;  yet  he  managed,  somehow,  for 
he  took  but  little  sleep  and  the  rest  of  the  time  he  de- 
voted to  study. 

This  was  the  Jimmy  of  whom  Ma  made  a  bugbear  to 
Lily — in  Lily's  interest — for  he  was  one  of  the  few  men 
whom  she  saw  often ;  and  you  can  never  tell  .  .  . 
with  those  devils  of  the  stage.  .  .  . 

Meanwhile,  Lily,  as  soon  as  she  had  turned  the  corner 
of  the  street,  drew  herself  up  and,  with  a  light  step,  went 
down  Percy  Street  and  Tottenham  Court  Road,  instead 
of  keeping  straight  on.  It  took  her  only  five  minutes 
longer  and  it  suggested  luxury,  fine  shops,  handsome 
furniture,  patent-leather  shoes.  She  adored  shopping, 
even  if  it  was  only  with  the  eyes,  through  the  plate- 
glass  windows. 

She  loved  to  pass  in  front  of  the  Horse  Shoe,  where 
stars  lived,  real  ones,  not  performing  dogs.  And 
then,  round  a  piece  of  waste  land,  there  was  a  hoard- 
ing covered  with  advertisements  that  interested  her :  the 
Hippodrome,  the  Kingdom,  the  Castle  were  displayed  be- 
tween extract  of  beef  and  mustard  ;  and  there  were  always 
new  programs ;  always  new  names ;  and  elephants,  horses, 
lions ;  and  tights.  .  .  . 

Lily  looked  at  this  for  a  few  seconds.  And,  suddenly, 
she  felt  a  thrill ;  on  a  scarlet  poster,  dazzling  as  the  sun, 
she  read : 


CURTAIN    RISES  47 

"Great  success!  Trampy  Wheel-Pad !J  At  the  King- 
dom ! ! !"  Trampy  in  London ! 

Not  that  Lily  was  astonished:  it  seemed  to  her  quite 
simple  that  he  should  be  there,  as  simple  as  for  her  to 
be  in  Chicago,  Bombay  or  Capetown;  people  do  some- 
times meet  on  tour,  it  all  depends :  you  can  be  separated 
for  years  and  then  perform  at  the  same  theater  for  months. 
No,  she  was  not  in  the  least  astonished:  a  little  excited, 
that  was  all,  without  exactly  knowing  why.  .  .  . 

"But,  if  I  should  meet  him,"  she  thought,  "what  shall  I 
say  to  him?  What  will  he  say  to  me?  Will  he  think 
me  grown  prettier  or  uglier  ?" 

Lily  came  to  herself  again  and  continued  on  her  er- 
rand; crossed  Tottenham  Court  Road,  plunged  into  a 
labyrinth  of  blocked  alleys,  of  dark  courts,  and,  suddenly, 
was  at  Jimmy's. 

Lily  did  not  like  him  much ;  she  considered  him  good- 
looking,  for  a  man,  but  too  shy.  He  never  paid  her  a 
compliment.  He  seemed  to  think  her  ugly,  whereas  many 
others  admired  her  and  made  no  bones  about  telling  her 
so,  especially  since  the  last  few  months;  but  he  was 
ashamed  of  himself,  no  doubt :  a  drunkard,  as  Ma  said. 

Poor  Lily  had  no  luck.  She  would  have  been  so  happy 
to  be  courted,  to  relieve  her  boredom.  But  nothing 
disgusted  her  so  much  as  drink.  And  yet  it  didn't  show 
in  Jimmy.  He  always  walked  straight,  never  fell,  like 
that  head-balancer  who,  the  other  night,  had  come  tum- 
bling down  from  his  perch.  Besides,  that  one  had  an 
excuse ;  he  drank  because  he  was  crossed  in  love ;  to  for- 
get, they  said.  Lily  forgave  everything  the  moment  there 
was  love  in  it ;  but  an  icicle  like  Jimmy,  who  loved  nobody 
and  who  drank  for  the  sake  of  drinking  .  .  .  ugh ! 

Jimmy  was  at  work  when  Lily  entered.     The  small, 


48  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

dark  shop,  crammed  with  things  in  steel,  with  loose 
wheels,  queer-shaped  objects,  reminded  Lily  of  a  prop- 
erty store,  only  it  was  dirtier.  There  were  tools  every- 
where; designs  for  machinery  pinned  on  the  walls;  it 
was  all  very  ugly. 

And  Jimmy's  greeting  was  none  too  engaging  either. 
A  curt  smile— "Glad  to  see  you,  Miss  Lily"— and,  as  for 
the  bike,  he  hadn't  understood  a  word  of  what  the  one- 
eyed  creature  who  had  just  left  had  tried  to  say. 

"I  thought  as  much,"  said  Lily,  laughing.  "That's  why 
I  came." 

And,  in  a  few  words,  she  explained  what  she  wanted. 
First,  repair  the  twisted  frame ;  next,  a  slight  alteration 
for  a  new  trick;  a  step  here,  another  there. 

"Always  fresh  tricks,  Lily?" 

"Always,  Jimmy.    No  end  of  bruises,  I  tell  you!" 

"It's  part  of  the  game,"  said  Jimmy. 

"I  should  like  to  see  you  try  it,"  retorted  Lily  con- 
temptuously, "squeezing  through  the  frame  while  it's 
going,  with  that  pedal  barking  your  back,"  and  she  rubbed 
herself  as  she  spoke.  "Only  yesterday  I  got  a  kick ;  gee ! 
It's  like  those  new  tricks  in  which  I  don't  feel  safe  :  riding 
with  one  foot  on  the  saddle  and  the  other  on  the  bar 
and  playing  a  banjo;  it  makes  me  shiver  as  I  go  past  the 
footlights ;  and  Pa  watching  me,  you  know ;  and,  if  I  lose 
my  balance,  I  get  black  and  blue  somewhere." 

"Pooh !"  said  Jimmy.  "One  can't  expect  a  white  skin 
at  the  game." 

Lily  didn't  care  for  this.  If  she  couldn't  be  courted,  at 
least  she  liked  to  be  pitied :  that  flattered  her  pride.  .  .  . 
It  was  all  very  well  for  Pa  to  say,  "It's  part  of  the  game, 
my  little  lady."  But  that  josser  of  a  Jimmy,  talking  like 
that  at  his  ease ! 


CURTAIN    RISES  49 

"I'm  glad  I'm  not  your  daughter!"  she  said.  "My! 
You'd  be  harder  than  Pa." 

"Your  Pa  is  hard,  sometimes;  but  he's  very  fond  of 
you,  for  all  that." 

"Of  course,"  said  Lily,  "he  wouldn't  like  me  to  break 
my  neck ;  I  bring  him  in  too  much  for  that,  eh  ?" 

"Come,"  interrupted  Jimmy,  "don't  talk  nonsense.  It's 
not  right  to  speak  as  you're  doing.  You'll  be  sorry  for  it, 
I'm  sure.  Tell  me,  rather :  you  were  saying  you  wanted 
a  step  here,  another  there ;  do  you  mean  like  this  ?" 

And  he  rummaged  among  his  tools,  looked  for  loose 
pieces,  showed  them  to  Lily,  while  thinking  of  other 
things : 

"Look  here,"  he  went  on,  "do  you  think  you're  the 
only  one  that's  got  to  work?  Suppose  you  were  shut  up 
all  day  in  a  factory  ?  Have  you  ever  been  to  a  factory  ? 
Do  you  know  the  life  of  a  metal-buffer  girl  at  Sheffield, 
standing  in  front  of  her  wheel,  from  morning  till  night, 
and  work,  work,  work?" 

"But  I'm  not  a  work-girl,  you  great  silly !  You  know 
I'm  an  artiste !  And,  now,  shall  I  tell  you  what  I  think  of 
you,  Jimmy?"  said  Lily,  pouting.  "You're  a  bad  man, 
that's  what  you  are !" 

And  thereupon  she  put  out  her  tongue,  turned  her  back 
on  him  and  began  to  look  at  the  walls,  the  diagrams,  the 
drawings,  an  illustration  out  of  Engineering. 

There  was  a  pause. 

Jimmy,  while  handling  the  bike,  gazed  at  Lily.  There 
was  no  sentimentality  about  Jimmy,  but  his  lively 
imagination  made  him  see  things  through  and  through ; 
and,  whatever  he  might  be,  Jimmy  was  not  bad.  That 
little  Lily:  to  think  that,  among  all  the  girls  of  her  own 
age,  she  was  the  only  one  to  do  that  trick!  He  pitied 


50  THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

her  and  all  child  prodigies.  To  his  mind,  there  was 
something  unsportsmanlike  about  it;  something  like  a 
race  won  by  a  one-year-old,  with  jockey,  whip  and  spurs. 
He  did  not  believe  all  he  heard,  of  course.  He  knew,  he 
lived  with  them,  he  was  one  of  them.  He  knew  the  pe- 
culiar mania  of  the  music-hall,  the  instinctive  lie,  uttered 
as  if  to  discourage  competition  by  giving  it  a  fright  at 
the  start.  To  listen  to  them,  it  meant  the  horsewhip,  the 
belt,  all  day  long ;  going  "through  the  mill,"  all  the  time. 
Among  the  people  with  the  painted  faces,  it  was  a  shot 
at  martyrdom,  a  chance  for  professional  boasting.  The 
most  commonplace,  the  most  coddled  lives  were  made 
more  interesting  by  means  of  imaginary  wounds  and 
scars,  like  those  explorers,  in  the  books,  who  cross  Africa 
without  food  or  drink,  barefooted,  with  a  crocodile  snap- 
ping at  their  heels. 

He  took  good  care  not  to  exaggerate.  Life  in  the  halls 
was  no  worse  than  anywhere  else,  thank  God !  It  had 
its  good  side  and  its  bad  side  and  its  professional  risks. 
The  "pros,"  taking  them  all  round,  were  as  good  as  the 
"jossers."  He  wanted  to  be  just.  He  had  seen  many 
who  were  very  happy;  one  could  get  anything  done  by 
firm  kindness.  He  could  also  understand,  in  the  terri- 
ble struggle  for  bread,  that  a  man  went  on  toiling  hard 
in  the  trade  in  which  he  was  born.  A  pro  could  not  make 
a  blue-stocking  of  his  daughter ;  some  were  born  duch- 
esses, on  satin ;  others  artistes  on  the  boards.  One  trade 
was  as  good  as  another;  but  dangerous  practicings, 
bruised  flesh,  seamed  skins :  no,  he  didn't  approve  of  that. 
He  had  seen  the  Laurences,  mad  with  ambition,  begin- 
ning all  over  again,  in  spite  of  falls  calculated  to  stave  in 
the  stage;  had  seen  girls  who  "do  knots"  lying  in  the 
dressing-rooms,  gasping,  exhausted.  Even  when  pro- 


CURTAIN    RISES  51 

fessional  vanity  alone  prompted  such  excesses,  Jimmy 
protested  within  himself;  and  then  there  were  so  many 
abuses.  .  .  .  Besides,  the  stage  so  often  spoiled  a  wom- 
an: every  branch  of  the  stage,  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest.  All  that  coaxing  familiarity !  What  he  said  was, 
if  Lily  had  been  his  daughter,  she  should  not  be  on  the 
stage ;  but  there  she  was  and  he  couldn't  help  it ;  and,  as 
it  was  her  natural  place  to  be  there,  he  would  not  be 
guilty  of  the  meanness  of  disgusting  a  poor  girl  with  the 
profession  which  she  had  been  at  pains  to  learn.  He 
preferred  to  let  her  call  him  "a  bad  man."  And  that  re- 
quired a  certain  courage ;  for  it  was  no  longer  a  child 
talking  to  him,  but  an  exquisitely  pretty  girl.  Jimmy 
could  not  believe  his  eyes.  What  a  change!  Was  it 
possible?  Having  been  away  from  London,  on  Harras- 
ford's  service,  he  had  not  seen  her  for  many  months, 
except  the  day  before,  just  in  time  to  shake  hands  behind 
the  scenes,  in  the  dusk ;  but  here,  in  his  shop,  he  hardly 
recognized  her,  he  could  not  exactly  say  why.  One  thing 
was  certain :  he  had  left  her  a  child  and  he  now  found  her 
a  beautiful  girl. 

"Tush!"  he  said  to  himself.  "She's  a  child  for  all 
that.  Only,  if  she  keeps  on  like  this,  what  a  handsome 
woman  she  will  be !" 

That  familiarity  on  the  stage:  he  reproached  himself 
for  thinking  of  it;  it  seemed  to  him  an  insult  to  Lily. 
And  he  began  to  talk  to  her  of  different  things,  kindly 
and  pleasantly,  changing  from  subject  to  subject.  He 
explained  his  drawings  on  the  wall,  his  ideas:  exterior 
ballistics;  the  resistance  of  the  air;  risking  his  life  six 
times  in  as  many  seconds.  .  .  . 

"He's  drunk,"  thought  Lily. 

And,  to  stop  this  flow  of  words,  as  though  talking 


52  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

to  herself,  Lily  said  she  did  not  complain ;  no,  she  would 
quite  like  the  bike,  if  she  hadn't  got  to  practise  so  hard ; 
she  only  complained  that  they  didn't  treat  her  "fair"  at 
home: 

"And  look  how  I'm  dressed !  I've  had  the  same  toque 
two  years.  And  what  do  you  think  of  this  frock?  The 
material  cost  four-three  a  yard.  I  look  like  a  tenter  in  it." 

Jimmy  did  not  share  Lily's  indignation.  He  thought 
her  neatly  and  nicely  dressed,  in  spite  of  her  performing- 
dog's  toque,  as  she  said.  It  all  suited  her  so  well.  But, 
on  examining  that  clear-cut  little  face,  lifted  toward 
him  with  a  rebellious  air,  he  felt  that  the  fatigue,  even 
the  blows  didn't  count;  that  the  hardest  thing,  for  Lily, 
was  to  be  "badly  dressed ;"  that  she  would  never  swallow 
that. 

"But,  look  here,"  said  Jimmy,  "all  this  isn't  worth 
making  a  fuss  for;  you  get  cross  about  nothing  at  all; 
when  you  came,  you  were  all  smiles ;  and  now  ..." 

"That's  because,"  Lily  began,  with  a  sly  laugh — oh, 
she  was  exasperated  with  Jimmy's  coldness !  She'd  show 
him,  the  icicle,  and  have  a  bit  of  fun  with  him — "on  my 
way  here,  Jimmy,  I  met  .  .  .  now  you  won't  give 
me  away,  Jimmy?  ...  I  met  my  ...  sweet- 
heart." 

"A  sweetheart?     You?    Lily?" 

"Yes,  yes,  yes,"  said  Lily,  nodding  her  head  and  look- 
ing at  him  archly,  for  she  could  see,  by  Jimmy's  expres- 
sion, that  he  was  caught. 

"And  your  father  and  mother  know  nothing  about  it  ?" 
insisted  Jimmy,  nonplussed. 

"No,  no;  it  doesn't  concern  them:  at  my  age,  a  girl 
earns  a  living  for  her  Pa  and  Ma ;  I  have  as  much  right 
to  a  sweetheart  as  any  one  else,  I  suppose." 


CURTAIN    RISES  53 

And,  greatly  amused,  she  fixed  Jimmy  with  her  mock- 
ing eyes. 

Jimmy  stared  at  her  in  amazement. 

Then  she  understood  that  it  was  not  a  thing  to  joke 
about  and  that  what  she  had  just  said  was  terrible.  And, 
suddenly : 

"No,  it's  not  true,  Jimmy !  I  was  only  laughing !  Oh, 
Jimmy,  you're  going  to  give  me  away !"  cried  Lily, 
squeezing  Jimmy's  arm  with  a  convulsive  little  hand. 
"Oh,  Jimmy,  don't  tell  Ma,  please,  please,  Jimmy !" 

And  there  was  something  so  sincere  in  her  voice  that 
Jimmy  saw  that  she  was  speaking  the  truth,  that  it  was 
only  the  jest  of  a  flapper  used  to  the  manners  of  the 
stage. 

"No,"  he  said  briskly,  "I  shan't  tell ;  don't  be  afraid, 
Lily;  only  ..." 

"Ah,  that's  nice  of  you,"  said  Lily,  much  relieved. 
"Marriage !  If  you  only  knew !  And  what  would  be- 
come of  the  troupe  ?  I  shall  never  marry.  I  think.  .  .  ." 

"Still,  some  day,  it's  bound  to  come,"  said  Jimmy, 
interrupting  her.  "You  won't  spend  all  your  life  on  a 
bike.  You  are  sure  to  marry  some  day.  .  .  ." 

"Don't  talk  to  me  about  marriage!  No,  not  that. 
Gee !" 

"But—" 

"Love  stories !  With  men !  I !  And  you  believed  it," 
said  Lily,  drawing  back  her  shoulder  and  raising  her 
hand.  "I  could  smack  you,  you  great  silly!"  And,  all 
of  a  sudden,  "I  must  go,"  she  cried,  "I've  stayed  too 
long ;  Ma  will  be  waiting  for  me  with  her  broom !" 

And  Lily  rushed  outside,  without  giving  Jimmy  time 
to  answer.  He  could  just  see  her  turn  the  corner  of 
the  street. 


54  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Jimmy  went  back  to  his  work,  silently,  wrapped  up  in 
his  thoughts.  That  nice  little  Lily !  She  could  be  easy  in 
her  mind.  No,  he  would  never  be  a  cause  of  worry  to 
her.  .  .  . 

Meanwhile,  Lily  ran  home  as  fast  as  she  could  and,  on 
entering,  saw  that  it  was  no  use ;  her  Ma  was  waiting  for 
her,  furious. 

"Where  have  you  been  ?" 

"Why,  I've  come  straight  from  Jimmy's,  Ma." 

"That's  a  lie!  The  butcher's  boy,  who  has  just  left, 
saw  you  outside  the  Horse  Shoe.  Who  were  you  wait- 
ing for?" 

"I  wasn't  waiting  for  any  one!"  cried  Lily,  her  eyes 
blazing  with  anger. 

"You  devil!"  said  Ma,  looking  round  for  a  stick,  an 
umbrella.  .  .  . 

And,  when  she  saw  nothing  within  reach,  her  anger 
increased.  Then  she  stiffened  her  arm  and  made  for 
Lily,  who  sprang  behind  the  table.  .  .  . 

But  Ma,  tripping  on  the  carpet,  fell  at  full  length, 
dragging  down  with  her  the  table-cloth  and  two  cups  that 
were  on  it. 

"My  two  china  cups !    You  viper !"  she  yelled.     .     .     . 

At  that  moment,  the  door  opened;  Clifton  entered. 
He  seemed  preoccupied ;  looked  at  his  watch  : 

"Nine  o'clock.  We  ought  to  be  at  the  theater !  Where 
are  the  girls?  And  what  .  .  ,  what's  all  this?"  he 
asked,  on  seeing  the  disorder,  Mrs.  Clifton  scrambling 
up  from  the  floor,  Lily  scowling  in  a  corner. 

Ma  grunted  an  explanation.  Two  cups  broken,  Lily  a 
gadabout  who  would  bring  them  to  the  grave  with  shame ! 

"But,  Pa,  I  was  only  looking  at  the  posters." 


CURTAIN    RISES  55 

"Posters  ?"  repeated  Clifton.  "Which  posters  ?  What's 
all  this  nonsense?" 

And,  when  Ma  had  told  him,  interrupted  by  despairing 
"But,  Pas,"  and  "No,  Pas,"  from  Lily,  he  very  calmly 
asked,  was  he  going  to  have  peace  in  his  own  house, 
or  was  he  not?  All  this  fuss  about  two  broken  cups; 
beating  Lily  for  nothing ! 

Never,  in  any  circumstances,  would  Clifton  "have 
snubbed  Mrs.  Clifton  like  this  before  Lily.  He  would 
have  waited  until  she  had  gone.  But  to  come  upon  all  this 
rot  when  there  were  so  many  serious  things  to  discuss! 
The  sisters  Pawnee  whom  he  had  seen  last  night :  Polly, 
Edith,  Lillian.  Yes,  that  Lillian,  damn  it,  a  winged  rose ! 
And  the  things  they  did  on  their  bike  without  seeming 
to  touch  it ! 

"My  poor  Lily,"  Pa  went  on,  going  up  to  his  daughter 
and  stroking  her  hair.  "I'm  not  saying  it  to  vex  you; 
but  you're  not  in  it  with  the  Pawnees !  Come  on !  Beg 
your  Ma's  pardon;  and  let's  be  off  to  the  theater.  I'm 
in  form  this  morning.  We  shall  have  a  great  practice." 


CHAPTER  III 

A  few  minutes  later,  Pa  was  hustling  his  herd  before 

him: 

"Quicker,  my  Woolly-legs !  No  time  to  lose !" 
He  thought  of  the  tricks  which  he  had  jotted  down 
the  evening  before  in  his  note-book.  Lily  would  learn 
them  quick  enough:  she  was  as  clever  as  the  Pawnees, 
when  all  was  said,  only  less  graceful.  She  had  the  bal- 
ancing power  all  right ;  but  grace,  grace,  damn  it,  to  do 
a  thing  like  that  as  though  it  were  child's  play:  that's 
what  she  hadn't  got!  You  saw  the  effort.  And  the 
apprentices  had  no  precision  in  their  groupings.  Now 
the  fat  freaks  had.  To  combine  German  discipline  with 
English  gracefulness,  that  was  the  question ;  to  have  the 
troupe  of  troupes ;  to  have  a  Lily  who  would  be  worth 
more  by  herself  than  Polly,  Edith  and  Lillian  put  to- 
gether. But  that  meant  work  and  going  through  the 
mill !  This  last  made  Pa  think  of  the  old  sheep  and  their 
bleatings.  He  gave  a  nervous  little  laugh  and  his  hand 
had  a  convulsive  movement,  as  though  to  strangle  those 
pests. 

Pa  had  recovered  his  good  humor  and  was  grinning 
by  the  time  they  reached  the  theater.  Merely  by  his  way 
of  taking  the  key  of  his  dressing-room  from  the  stage- 
doorkeeper  one  recognized  the  owner  of  a  troupe,  the 
man  with  a  "permanent  address,"  the  manager,  the  boss, 
the  prof,  the  Pa.  On  entering  the  lobby,  he,  with  his  six 

56 


IWfflf 

'4  .''•*''/  'f{y»i>Jitf 
'QUICKER,  MY  WOOLLY-LEGS  1 " 


58  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

girls,  took  possession  of  the  theater.  He  nodded  to  the 
staff ;  growled  a  "Lazybones !"  as  the  Roofers  passed  out 
two  by  two,  always  two  by  two :  a  fair  one  with  made-up 
eyes,  a  dark  one  with  kiss-me-quick  lips;  sniffed  their 
cheap  perfumes  amid  the  tarry  smell  of  the  packages 
marked  Sidney,  New  York,  Paris.  .  .  . 

On  reaching  the  stage,  Pa  first  gave  a  glance  to  make 
sure  that  there  were  no  elephants,  or  ponies,  or  Merry 
Wives,  that  they  could  practise  at  their  ease,  without 
having  to  burrow  in  a  corner,  like  rats.  The  stage  was 
almost  empty.  After  the  live  street,  it  was  a  pallid  light, 
in  which  ghosts  moved.  The  New  Zealanders,  it  need 
not  be  said,  no  longer  fancied  themselves  in  the  cavern 
of  Bluebeard  or  Puss-in-Boots ;  they  had  seen  too  many 
stages  during  the  past  two  years.  The  slant  of  the  floor, 
the  roughness  or  smoothness  of  the  boards  was  what  in- 
terested them,  for  fear  of  falls  and  barked  shins.  Pa  hur- 
ried them  to  their  dressing-room  to  get  into  their  knick- 
ers, while  he  took  off  his  jacket  and  turned  up  his 
trousers,  so  as  to  run  better.  No  more  time  to  lose, 
with  his  Lily!  He  was  still  in  a  fever  from  seeing 
those  Pawnees  last  night.  As  for  the  stage  and  the 
boards,  a  lot  he  cared,  slanting  or  straight,  rough  or 
smooth!  To  work!  to  work!  And  he  got  ready  the 
bikes,  which  Tom  had  brought  down,  without  a  glance 
around  him. 

To  a  poet,  to  a  painter,  that  glance  would  have  been 
worth  the  taking.  The  iron  curtain  was  raised,  the  house 
loomed  vaguely ;  the  balconies,  covered  with  cloth,  stood 
out  like  cliffs ;  the  pit,  with  its  seats  under  a  gray  drugget, 
because  of  the  dust,  lifted  toward  the  stage  its  rows  of 
motionless  waves.  The  stage  itself  was  strange:  a  sort 
of  huge  cave,  with  strips  of  scenery  hanging  like  stalac- 


CURTAIN    RISES  59 

tites ;  near  the  wall,  a  metal  pedestal,  with  a  red  velvet 
platform,  looked  like  a  blood-stained  scaffold ;  one  sus- 
pected the  presence  of  properties:  wheels,  iron  imple- 
ments, tangled  ropes,  like  so  many  instruments  of  torture. 
At  the  New  Zealanders'  feet,  half-naked  bodies,  suggest- 
ing the  souls  of  the  damned,  were  tumbling,  practising 
falls ;  a  woman  in  a  white  wrap  hovered  round ;  and,  near 
the  proscenium,  a  pack  of  trained  seals,  lying  in  their 
moist  boxes,  raised  their  frightened  heads,  as  who  should 
say  corpses  cast  up  on  the  shores  of  hell  by  the  silent 
waves  of  the  pit. 

But  three  slender  forms,  spinning  on  their  trapeze 
almost  above  Pa's  head,  sprang  lightly  to  the  stage,  near 
an  old  fellow  in  spectacles. 

"Why,  Mr.  Fuchs  and  the  Three  Graces!  Here's  a 
surprise!"  said  Pa,  who  had  not  seen  them  since  the 
New  York  Olympians.  "When  did  you  get  here?  Yes- 
terday ?" 

There  was  a  general  shaking  of  hands.  Fuchs  con- 
gratulated Pa  on  his  success,  said  he  had  followed  his 
progress  in  the  papers.  Pa  owned  a  troupe  now  and  had 
a  name. 

"So  this  is  your  Lily,"  said  Fuchs,  tapping  her  on  the 
cheek  as  she  joined  the  group.  "A  real  lady !  And  good, 
eh?" 

The  Three  Graces  also  congratulated  Pa  ... 
kissed  Lily : 

"How  sweet  you've  grown!  Why,  Lily,  how  pretty 
you  are !" 

Lily  was  so  surprised,  so  pleased  ;  and  her  Pa  was  very 
proud.  He  thanked  Mr.  Fuchs,  complimented  the  Three 
Graces  in  his  turn,  to  their  delight : 

"What  arms!     What  muscles!"     Then,  "Excuse  us, 


60  THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

eh  ?  Lily  must  get  ready.  We  shall  meet  again  presently, 
after  practice." 

The  Graces  had  gone  back  to  it  already.  Pa  tested  the 
bikes ;  took  a  hurried  turn  at  the  pumps ;  and,  when  the 
apprentices  and  Lily  returned : 

"Yoop,  up  with  you!" 

The  round  began.  Tom  looked  to  the  girls,  constantly ; 
ran  after  them;  kept  an  eye  on  their  falls.  Pa,  con- 
stantly, hung  on  to  Lily.  Nothing  else  existed  when  he 
was  handling  his  star.  His  wish  to  do  well,  his  love  of 
art  for  art's  sake  worked  him  up,  stimulated  him,  made 
him  hit  out  but  not  in  anger :  it  was  the  spark  of  en- 
thusiasm, of  which  the  apprentices  caught  the  reflection. 

"Hi,  you  there,  Mary!  I'll  pull  your  ear!  Birdie,  if  I 
take  my  belt  to  you !" 

But  his  Lily  above  all;  his  Lily!  his  seven  stone  of 
flesh  and  bones!  Pa  was  an  artiste;  he  had  thought 
of  a  thousand  things  since  his  trip  to  Brighton.  New 
and  astounding  tricks;  and  easy  at  that  ...  if 
Lily  only  would!  Oh,  he'd  soon  make  her  graceful! 
But,  for  that,  she  would  have  to  obey,  to  let  go  the 
handle-bar  at  a  sign,  instead  of  endlessly  seeking  her 
balance.  For  instance,  Pa  held  her  rein  to  prevent  falls 
—there  was  nothing  spiteful  about  Pa,  he  never  let  you 
fall  on  purpose— and  Lily— "One!  Two!— Count  to- 
gether, Lily!"— put  one  foot  on  the  saddle,  the  other 
on  the  handle-bar:  "Three!"  That's  where  she  had  to 
let  go  her  hands,  smartly,  and  stand  erect  as  she  rode. 
The  machine  slipped  tinder  her.  Lily,  shaking  with  fear, 
stooped  to  seize  the  handle-bar. 

"Stand  up,  Lily!     Show  pluck,  Lily!"  said  Pa. 

Lily,  accustomed  to  obeying  blindly,  drew  herself  up 
again.  But,  sometimes,  crash!  The  whole  came  turn- 


CURTAIN    RISES  61 

bling  down.  Notwithstanding  the  rein,  Lily  fell  to  the 
ground;  and  the  bike,  in  addition,  caught  her  a  kick  in 
passing. 

"Nothing  broken  ?  A  tiny  scratch ;  it's  nothing.  Tom, 
the  white  stuff!" 

Tom  left  his  Woolley-legs,  brought  a  bottle  of  em- 
brocation; a  few  drops  of  that  on  the  skin,  a  bit  of 
sticking-plaster ;  there,  that  was  all  right. 

"You  see,  Lily,  you're  not  dead  yet!  Nothing  to  be 
frightened  about.  Come,  try  again !" 

The  great  thing  was  to  hustle.  Pa  displayed  so  much 
enthusiasm — "Those  Pawnees,  damn  it !" — that  Lily,  for 
all  her  fears,  was  smitten  in  her  turn,  ended  by  becom- 
ing exasperated  against  those  Pawnees,  felt  a  longing  to 
wring  their  necks ! 

She  obeyed  her  Pa  like  an  automaton,  in  her  anxiety 
to  do  well. 

"More  graceful !    That's  it!    Not  so  stiff !"  said  Pa. 

"But,  Pa,  I  can't!"  protested  Lily,  soaked  in  perspira- 
tion. 

"But  you've  got  to,  my  little  lady !" 

They  passed  from  one  practice  to  another,  almost  with- 
out resting.  Lily  was  worn  out,  Pa  seemed  indefatigable. 

Sometimes,  practising  was  marked  by  interruptions. 
Maud's  gouged  eye  remained  the  typical  accident.  An- 
other time,  a  girl  lay  fainting  for  ten  minutes  after 
falling  on  her  head ;  or  else  the  stage  was  invaded  by  a 
ballet.  There  was  no  end  to  it.  On  this  particular  day, 
they  had  a  visit  from  Harrasford  himself,  Harrasford 
the  chief  and  master,  who  came  along  with  Jimmy;  a 
visit  which  was  the  more  sensational  for  being  quite  rare. 
Pa,  now  that  he  was  the  owner  of  a  troupe  and  sure  of 
his  position,  would  not  have  been  sorry  to  be  noticed  by 


62  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Harrasford,  just  to  impress  Mr.  Fuchs  and  show  him 
what  they  thought  of  Lily  in  London. 

"Do  your  best,  my  Lily,"  said  Pa.  "He's  watching 
us." 

But  bill-toppers,  New  Zealanders  though  they  might 
be,  were  nobodies  to  "him;"  Lily — one  of  a  thousand, 
among  all  those  of  both  sexes  who  performed  in  his  the- 
aters. There  might  have  been  ten  cycling  rhinoceroses 
on  the  boards ;  he  might  have  seen  Lily  swallow  her  bike, 
and  change  into  a  butterfly:  he  would  have  paid  no  at- 
tention. Those  were  details  that  concerned  the  stage- 
manager.  He  hurried  across  the  stage  to  the  fly-ladder, 
made  Jimmy  explain  things,  took  notes  as  he  went, 
wanted  to  see  for  himself,  pointed  to  the  first  batten,  to 
the  electric  switches. 

"How  much  for  so  many  lamps?  And  that?  What 
does  that  come  to,  roughly  ?" 

And  he  stopped  for  a  second  in  his  course,  his  ear 
stretched  toward  Jimmy  to  catch  his  answer  flying ;  then 
both  of  them  went  on  again,  quickly. 

Jimmy  was  now  following  Harrasford  along  the 
bridges,  with  the  whole  stage  below  him,  in  the  ruddy 
semi-darkness ;  at  one  side,  the  half-naked  bodies  fell 
with  a  heavy  thud  after  their  somersaults ;  or  else  it  was 
the  sharp  sound  of  a  bike  skidding;  and  distant  voices 
rose  up  to  him : 

"But,  Pa,  I  can't !" 

"But  you've  got  to,  my  little  lady !" 

"Poor  little  thing!"  thought  Jimmy,  disappearing  in 
the  flies,  toward  the  side-rails,  at  Harrasford's  heels. 
And  Lily  went  on  riding  and  Pa  running  after  her, 
round  and  round  and  round.  She  seemed  to  be  fleeing 
madly,  pursued  by  a  devil.  Suddenly,  Pa  stopped, 


CURTAIN    RISES  63 

having  exhausted  his  strength,  and  Lily  fell  rather  than 
sat  upon  a  hamper  by  the  wall. 

"Here,  Lily,  put  this  over  your  shoulders,"  said  Pa, 
giving  her  his  jacket  "You'll  catch  cold,  darling.  Oof, 
let's  take  breath  a  bit !" 

But  a  glad  voice  burst  through  the  silence:  it  came 
from  the  Three  Graces,  who  always  worked  on  stub- 
bornly, even  during  the  absence  of  Nunkie,  who  had  been 
out  for  a  smoke.  Thea  greeted  his  return  with  a  cry  of 
triumph : 

"Ten  pullings-up  with  one  arm,  Nunkie !  Ten  without 
stopping !" 

"Well  done!  I'm  very  pleased  with  you,"  said  Mr. 
Fuchs;  and  he  crowned  their  excitement  by  declaring 
that,  as  a  reward,  he  would  that  very  day  buy  Thea  the 
sleeve-links  which  he  had  promised  her  ever  since  last 
year. 

"Dear  Nunkie!" 

A  spasm  of  vanity  made  them  rush  back  to  their  work ; 
and  soon  the  three  of  them  formed,  in  mid-air,  an  involved 
group  of  ropes,  bars  and  hardened  limbs. 

Lily,  in  spite  of  her  fatigue,  was  amused  at  those  mad 
girls.  To  take  all  that  trouble  for  the  sake  of  a  pair  of 
sleeve-links !  Her  shoulders  shook  with  nervous  laughter, 
in  spite  of  Pa's  presence.  He  quieted  her  with  a  gesture, 
scolded  her  under  his  breath,  kindly : 

"Shut  up,  Lily !  .  .  .  Aren't  you  ashamed  of  your- 
self, Lily?" 

And  he  looked  at  Nunkie  with  an  air  of  saying : 

"You  old  rogue !" 

As  for  the  Three  Graces,  it  was  a  pleasure  to  watch 
them :  their  pluck  was  infectious. 

"To  work !"  said  Pa.  "Let's  have  a  somersault,  eh  ?" 


64  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

And,  at  a  sign  from  him,  two  of  the  apprentices,  as- 
sisted by  Tom,  fixed  a  little  steel-legged  table  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  stage,  bore  down  upon  it  with  all  their  weight. 
The  bike,  set  at  full  speed,  stopped  short  as  it  struck  the 
table ;  and  Lily,  carried  on  by  the  impulse,  continued  her 
whirl,  full  on  her  back,  and,  carrying  the  machine  with 
her,  came  to  the  ground  on  the  other  side  of  the  table  and 
went  on  riding.  But  that  shook  her,  in  her  stomach,  her 
heart,  everywhere.  Each  time,  she  was  nearly  succeed- 
ing, but  it  wasn't  quite  right. 

"I  can  see,"  said  Pa,  "you  want  to  make  me  lose  my 
temper !" 

"But,  Pa,  it  hurts !" 

"Oh,  those  blasted  little  brats!"  shouted  Pa  angrily. 
"Rickety  machines,  every  one  of  them :  no  more  energy 
than  a  sparrow  and  lazy  into  the  bargain !" 

Then,  suddenly,  Lily  succeeded  magnificently. 

"You  see  you  can  do  it  when  you  like,  you  obstinate 
little  wretch !"  said  Pa.  "Now  try  not  to  miss  it  again, 
next  time!  That  will  do  for  to-day,"  he  added,  seeing 
Lily  out  of  breath.  "Go  and  get  dressed,  my  Lily." 

The  Three  Graces  were  finishing  also.  Good  old 
Nunkie  wiped  the  perspiration  from  their  foreheads 
with  his  big  checked  handkerchief,  invited  Clifton  to 
come  with  Lily  and  choose  the  sleeve-links  and  suggested 
that  they  could  have  a  chat  at  the  restaurant. 

"Would  you  like  to,  Lily?"  asked  Pa. 

"Yes,  Pa." 

"Very  well,  then." 

The  girls  would  go  back  alone.  Tom,  having  carried 
up  the  bikes,  was  told  to  run  home  and  fetch  Miss  Lily's 
new  dress  and  boots,  Mrs.  Clifton's  brooch  and  big  hat. 
And,  half  an  hour  later,  Lily,  who  had  crawled  up  to  her 


CURTAIN    RISES  65 

dressing-room  stiff-legged,  exhausted,  feeling  sixty,  came 
tripping  down  the  stairs  all  freshly  dressed,  wearing  the 
great  hat  of  her  mother,  and  a  pair  of  creaking  boots. 
She  soon  recovered  when  she  was  dressed  out.  She 
drew  up  her  dainty  figure,  so  as  to  be  level  with  the  im- 
posing group  of  Pa,  Nunkie  and  the  Three  Graces. 

Lily,  very  proud  of  herself,  spun  out  the  pleasure  of 
drawing  on  her  gloves  to  go  shopping  with  those  big 
girls,  who  had  had  love  stories.  Then  they  discussed 
what  restaurant.  .  .  .  Nunkie,  long  ago — "Zaeo's 
year  at  the  Aquarium : — that  doesn't  make  me  any  young- 
er, eh?" — had  discovered  a  little  German  place.  .  .  . 

Lily  would  have  liked  to  propose  the  Horse  Shoe,  to 
walk  in  there  with  her  big  hat  and  creaking  boots  as 
though  the  place  belonged  to  her.  But  they  decided  upon 
a  "Lyons"  in  Wardour  Street.  At  the  table,  it  was  touch- 
ing to  watch  the  attentions  which  the  Three  Graces  lav- 
ished upon  their  Nunkie,  the  respect  they  showed  him. 
Pa  was  not  sorry  that  Lily  should  see  that,  but  Lily  took 
no  notice  at  all:  she  just  removed  her  gloves,  held  her 
knife  and  fork  with  the  tips  of  her  fingers,  Jet  Pa  help 
her,  thanked  him  with  a  pretty  "  'K  you."  From  the  cor- 
ner of  her  eye,  she  watched  other  groups,  to  pick  up  good 
manners.  She  seemed  to  have  frequented  smart  restau- 
rants all  her  life :  beside  her,  Nunkie  and  the  Three  Graces, 
who  cut  their  bread  with  their  knives  and  made  a  noise 
when  eating,  looked  like  a  family  of  small  farmers  on  a 
visit  to  London  town.  Pa  was  greatly  amused,  enjoyed 
his  daughter's  aristocratic  ways,  admired  her  refined  air. 
When  they  went  out,  in  obedience  to  a  look  from  Lily, 
he  bought  her  a  bunch  of  violets,  which  he  pinned  to  her 
bodice  himself : 

"Well,  Lily,  are  you  happy?   Do  you  love  your  Pa? 


66  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Tell  me  you  love  your  Pa,"  and  he  looked  at  her  gently 
as  if  in  regret  at  having  been  so  harsh  at  practice. 

"It's  for  your  good,  my  Lily,  you'll  thank  me  one  of 
these  days.  I'll  give  you  lovely  dresses,  I'll  cover  you 
with  diamonds!" 

"Why  not  to-day  ?"  asked  Lily,  with  a  comic  pout. 

Then  both  of  them  laughed  and  Lily  forgot  every- 
thing, even  the  blow  with  the  fist,  at  being  treated  so  like 
a  lady. 

"If  I  was  married,"  she  said  to  the  Three  Graces,  "I 
should  like  to  go  shopping  all  day  long  and  have  fine 
dresses,  a  gold  watch  and  no  bike !" 

The  Three  Graces,  with  their  heroic  strength,  had  no 
thought  of  such  luxuries.  Thea  told  Lily  of  her  successes 
in  America : 

"Five  pullings-up  with  one  arm  at  Boston.  Six  at 
'Frisco.  Eight  when  we  got  back  to  New  York!  Eight, 
Lily !  And  to-day  ..." 

"And  your  lover  in  America,  tell  me  about  your  lover 
,  .  ."  interrupted  Lily,  pressing  Thea's  arm. 

"Talk  low,"  said  Thea,  looking  back  at  Nunkie,  who 
was  walking  behind  with  Pa.  "Nunkie  is  furious  with 
him.  If  he  ever  meets  him!  He  says  it's  disgraceful, 
not  writing  to  me,  after  asking  leave  to.  It's  an  insult 
that  ought  to  disgust  me  with  men  for  good  and  all, 
Nunkie  says." 

She  told  Lily  everything,  her  unhappiness  at  first,  for 
she  loved  him.  Lily,  with  her  little  nose  in  the  air, 
sniffed  those  love  stories,  gulped  them  down,  so  to  speak, 
with  an  instinctive  movement  of  the  lips. 

"And  did  you  write  to  him?" 

"I  wrote  to  him,  but  he  never  answered.  Oh,  if  Nunkie 
knew!  He  forbids  us  to  write,  because  writing,  you 


CURTAIN    RISES 


67 


know,  Lily,  puts  out  the  muscles  of  the  arms,  interferes 
with  the  pullings-up,  Nunkie  says."     .     .     . 

But  they  turned  into  Regent  Street:  to  Lily  it 
was  the  entrance  to  the  paradise  of  shops.  The  huge 
curve  displayed  its  window  fronts;  and  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen and  little  girls:  not 
dressed  in  their  Ma's  leavings, 
these  last,  but  a  superior 
branch  of  mankind,  similar  to 
that  in  the  front  boxes. 

Nunkie  blinked  his  eyes  be- 
hind his  spectacles :  all  this 
luxury  terrified  him ;  he  had 
almost  forgotten  the  sleeve- 
links,  talking  with  Clifton  of 
people  they  had  known: 

"The  boy-violinist  ?  Not  up 
to  much.  Ave  Maria  ?  A  dis- 
grace: married,  deserted,  I 
don't  know  what.  Poland,  the 
Parisienne  ?  A  scandal !"  As 
for  him,  he  had  but  one  wish, 
after  getting  his  girls  mar- 
ried: to  retire  to  his  home, 
grow  his  roses,  look  after  his 
pigeons ;  simple  joys,  the  only 
ones.  .  .  . 

"Look,  Thea!"  Lily  broke 
in,  pointing  through  the  plate- 
glass  to  a  heap  of  imitation 
jewelry,  lying,  among  watches, 
on  red  and  black  velvet. 

"Come  on !"  said  Mr.  Fuchs. 

NUNKIE 


68  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

But,  when  Thea  saw  the  prices — ten  shillings,  twelve 
shillings — she  refused  to  go  in,  saying  she  could  have  it 
just  as  pretty  in  Wardour  Street  and  ever  so  much 
cheaper. 

"Just  as  you  please,  my  darling.  I'll  do  whatever  you 
like.  I  don't  know  anything  about  it !" 

Clifton  felt  something  rise  in  revolt  within  him,  he  was 
unable  to  resist  it ;  a  case  of  showing  that  old  curmudgeon 
what  a  Pa  was  and  that  his  little  girl,  too,  did  pullings-up 
in  her  way  and  that  he  knew  how  to  treat  her  as  a  Pa 
should : 

"Your  watch,  Lily,"  he  said,  opening  the  door  and 
pushing  her  in.  "Now's  the  chance  to  get  it.  Come, 
choose  for  yourself !" 

"Oh,  Pa !  Do  you  really  mean  it,  Pa  ?"  she  said  incred- 
ulously. 

"Now  look  here,  I'll  smack  you,  Lily !  When  your  Pa 
tells  you  a  thing!" 

Lily  seemed  a  princess,  with  her  way  of  saying, 
'''  'K  you,"  of  touching  the  ornaments,  the  watches,  like  a 
little  creature  thirsting  for  luxury  and  yielding  to  her  in- 
clination at  the  first  opportunity.  There  was  so  great  a 
look  of  happiness  in  her  eyes ;  and  Clifton  was  so  proud 
of  his  Lily,  that  he  offered  her  a  chain  as  well,  to  go  with 
the  watch.  Lily  refused  at  first,  for  form's  sake,  and 
then  took  courage— like  a  poor  little  martyr  who  did  not 
like  to  disoblige  her  Pa— and  chose  a  very  pretty  watch- 
chain,  to  the  great  wonderment  of  the  Three  Graces  and 
of^Nunkie,  who  thought,  as  they  left  the  shop,  that  the 
children  of  to-day  .  .  .  upon  his  word  ...  the 
parents  of  to-day  ...  it  was  all  very  different  in 
his  time.  .  . 

Clifton  laughed  to  himself  at  that  old  curmudgeon  as 


CURTAIN    RISES  69 

he  left  him  to  go  home,  with  his  star.  Lily  hung  heavily 
on  her  father's  arm,  passed  the  draper's  shops  with  a 
serious  air. 

"No,  another  time!"  said  Pa,  who  felt  what  she  was 
after. 

And  he  hurried  his  daughter  off,  for  he  might  have 
yielded,  she  was  so  nice. 

Lily  set  her  watch  in  Piccadilly,  as  they  passed ;  then  at 
the  Cafe  de  1'Europe,  by  the  big  clock  at  the  back ;  and 
again,  twenty  steps  farther,  at  the  bar  of  the  Crown.  Lily 
looked  at  the  time  and  Pa  showed  his  Lily  off.  He  was 
proud  to  be  seen  with  her  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lisle 
Street,  where  everybody  knew  him.  True,  he  seemed  to 
have  the  name  of  being  hard  with  Lily.  But,  come,  was 
he  hard?  Did  she  look  like  a  martyr?  It  was  preposter- 
ous, all  those  stories.  And  he  redoubled  his  attentions 
to  his  daughter,  who  talked  a  heap  of  nonsense,  asked 
funny  questions : 

"Why  should  writing  a  letter  interfere  with  the  trapeze, 
when  a  girl  has  arms  harder  than  a  horse's  hocks  ?" 

"What?  What?"  asked  Pa,  taken  aback,  and  when 
he  understood,  he  would  have  held  his  sides  for  laugh- 
ing, if  he  had  been  at  home : 

"Oh,  the  old  rogue!"  he  said  admiringly.  "He  loves 
his  dear  girls,  does  Nunkie !" 

He  was  still  laughing  when  they  reached  Tottenham 
Court  Road ;  and,  as  they  passed  the  Horse  Shoe,  a  voice, 
which  Lily  seemed  to  remember,  called-  to  them  from 
behind : 

"Hullo,  Clifton!" 

Pa  turned  his  head  in  surprise : 

"Hullo,  Trampy !" 

For  he  recognized  him  at  once,  though  he  was  much 


70  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

changed.  Besides,  he  knew  him  to  be  in  London.  But  it 
was  a  prosperous  and  gorgeous  Trampy,  quite  unlike  the 
old  days ;  and  forthwith  Trampy  explained :  a  champagne 
supper  last  night,  just  come  from  the  bar ;  glass  of  Vichy 
water,  you  know.  Huge  success  in  London.  Girls,  by 
Jove !  And  then,  pretending  not  to  know  Lily : 

"I  congratulate  you,  Clifton ;  what  a  dear  little  wife !" 

Pa,  greatly  amused,  protested :  not  his  wife,  no,  his 
Lily !  Then  Trampy  went  into  ecstasies :  how  pretty  she 
had  grown,  one  of  the  handsomest  girls  in  London,  sure ! 
And  in  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land !  And  in  all  the  British  dominions  beyond  the  seas, 
by  Jove !  And  what  a  change  since  Mexico !  She  was  a 
woman  now,  a  peach,  a  regular  peach ! 

Lily  seemed  fascinated  by  Trampy,  examined  him,  his 
shiny  hat,  his  gold  rings,  his  patent-leather  shoes.  A 
swell,  Trampy,  a  toff,  a  gentleman  like  those  in  the  front 
boxes. 

"Yes,  Lily,"  said  Trampy,  guessing  her  thoughts, 
"yes,  that's  the  way  it  is;  one's  not  always  hard  up. 
I've  struck  oil  since  leaving  America.  Heaps  of 
money !  Eh,  what !"  he  continued,  offering  Clifton  an  ex- 
pensive cigar.  "You  wouldn't  have  thought  it,  would  you, 
when  you  left  me  stranded  in  Mexico  ?  That  was  a  nice 
dirty  trick  you  played  me !  Come  and  have  a  drain,  old 
man,  to  drink  Miss  Lily's  health  and  show  there's  no  ill 
feeling !" 

"No,  another  time,"  said  Clifton,  vexed  at  this  recollec- 
tion of  Mexico,  now  that  he  was  the  established  owner  of 
a  troupe,  a  man  whose  word  was  as  good  as  gold.  "I'm 
in  a  hurry  to  get  home :  a  very  nice  home,  Trampy,  a  real 
good  one.  Come  and  see  us  some  day.  Au  revoir." 

But  Trampy  was  so  pleased  at  meeting  them,  he  never 


CUR  TAIN    RISES  71 

stopped  shaking  them  by  the  hand.  Lily  had  to  accept  a 
bag  of  cakes  to  share  with  the  troupe  when  they  had  their 
tea.  Then,  at  last: 

"Au  revoir,  old  man;  au  revoir,  my  love,  my  little 
peach !" 

Lily's  head  was  quite  turned  by  this  jolly  day :  it  made 
her  forget  six  months  of  worries.  To  think  that,  for 
some  people,  every  day  was  like  that!  However,  she 
mustn't  complain:  a  watch,  a  chain  as  well,  the  somer- 
sault pulled  off,  compliments  from  Trampy.  .  .  . 

Ma's  reception  of  them,  when  they  got  home,  was  icy. 
Pa  looked  a  little  like  a  school-boy  caught  at  fault;  and 
Lily,  none  too  easy  in  her  mind,  put  the  cakes  on  the  side- 
board, and  hastened  to  take  off  her  mother's  big  hat.  Ma 
grumbled,  under  her  breath:  it  was  nothing  but  going 
out,  now.  Old  Cinderella  could  stay  at  home,  bare- 
headed, while  my  lady  went  shopping !  A  fine  thing,  my 
word,  for  a  great  sensible  girl  to  abuse  her  Pa's  weak- 
ness !  There  was  nothing  to  do  at  home,  of  course ! 
Well,  if  it  pleased  Mr.  Qifton,  she  had  no  more  to  say ! 
.  ,7  .  And,  while  she  grumbled,  Ma  prepared  the  tea 
and  shot  glances  at  Lily,  a  Lily  with  red  cheeks  and 
bright  eyes  and  looking  so  pretty  that  Ma,  full  of  mixed 
pride  and  anxiety,  felt  sudden  longings  to  eat  her  up  with 
kisses,  "ugly"  that  she  was ! 

Pa  did  his  best  to  calm  Mrs.  Clifton,  tried  to  amuse  her 
with  the  story  of  the  sleeve-links,  of  the  horse's  hocks, 
and  Pa  laughed,  my ! 

"He  laughs  best  who  laughs  last,"  growled  Ma. 

"Just  think,  Ma,"  said  Lily,  taking  courage  from  Pa's 
merriment.  "That  old  rogue  forbids  his  daughter  to  write, 
he  pretends  that  ..." 

"And  quite  right  too!"  said  Ma.    "What  do  girls  want 


72  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

with  writing?  And  who  do  you  mean?  What  old  rogue? 
You  don't  mean  Mr.  Fuchs,  I  suppose  ?" 

"Why,  yes,  Ma,  old  Fuchs." 

"Old  Fuchs !  You  chit,  to  talk  like  that  of  respectable 
people!  Go  to  your  room,  impudence!  Dry  bread  for 
you !" 

"But,  Ma    .     .     !"  said  Lily  rebelliously. 

"That's  what  comes  of  it,"  said  Mrs.  Clifton,  addressing 
her  husband,  "when  a  mother  no  longer  has  the  right  to 
correct  her  daughter." 

And  she  pointed  to  Lily,  who  persisted  in  remaining, 
who  was  even  beginning  an  explanation : 

"But,  Pa    ...    but    ..." 

"Obey  your  mother  first,"  said  Clifton. 

"Yes,  Pa." 

And  Lily  went  out,  very  anxious  at  the  turn  which 
things  had  taken. 

Clifton  realized  that  he  had  perhaps  been  wrong  that 
morning  to  blame  Mrs.  Clifton  in  Lily's  presence.  He 
was  wrong  also  to  laugh  at  old  Fuchs  before  Lily.  But, 
all  the  same,  that  old  rogue  .  .  .  and  they  had  be- 
lieved it,  those  Graces!  That  wouldn't  go  down  with 
Lily! 

"It's  an  example  you  ought  to  follow,  instead  of  laugh- 
ing at  it,  Mr.  Clifton !" 

"Upon  my  word,  I'm  very  proud  of  my  Lily ;  she  works 
well,  she  really  does,"  said  Pa,  stretching  himself  in  the 
easy-chair.  "I'm  pleased  with  her ;  you  know  as  well  as  I 
do,  a  girl  is  not  a  boy.  She  can  do  with  a  little  spoiling. 
And  only  just  now  I  made  Lily  a  present  of  a  gold  watch 
and  chain." 

"Then  I  give  up!"  said  Ma,  in  a  voice  of  exaspera- 
tion. "Then  I  give  up!  Why  should  I  take  all  this 


CURTAIN    RISES  73 

trouble  bringing  up  your  daughter?  A  little  spendthrift 
who  will  bring  us  all  to  the  workhouse !  And  a  good  thing 
when  she  does !" 

But  Pa  wanted  peace  in  his  own  house.  That  was 
enough  of  it!  Peace  was  what  he  wanted,  damn  it,  and 
not  a  monkey-and-parrot  life! 

And,  jumping  up  from  his  chair,  he  opened  the  door 
and  shouted  up  the  staircase : 

"Come  down,  my  Lily !  Your  Ma  says  you  may !  The 
cakes  are  on  the  table." 


CHAPTER  IV 

Pa  would  have  covered  his  Lily  with  diamonds,  if  he 
had  the  money  .  .  .  and  if  Ma  had  allowed  it !  But, 
on  this  special  point,  she  ventured  to  oppose  him.  She 
had  been  Lily's  age  herself,  had  Ma,  and  she  enlarged 
upon  the  necessity  of  keeping  a  tight  rein  on  Lily. 

Ma  enumerated  the  fugitives:  Ave  Maria,  and  this 
one,  and  that  one,  and  ever  so  many  others  who  had 
bolted;  and  troupes  ruined  by  the  flight, — or  the  mar- 
riage,— of  the  star  .  .  . 

"Lily  has  changed  a  good  deal  lately,  dear,  are  you 
sure  she  hasn't  a  man  in  her  mind?" 

"There  we  are  again !"  said  Pa.  "Always  the  same  old 
story!  But  just  tell  me,  who  does  she  see?  Who  does 
she  know?  Jimmy?  You  don't  mean  him,  I  suppose? 
Very  well!  Trampy,  then?  A  married  man,  divorced, 
married  again,  goodness  knows  what!  and  then  .  .  . 
and  then  .  .  .  Oh,  well,  let's  have  peace  at  home,  at 
any  rate!  Damn  it,  Lily  may  be  a  bit  of  a  flirt:  why 
shouldn't  she  be,  a  pretty  girl  like  that?  Beauty,  in  the 
profession,  is  half  the  battle." 

And  Pa  entered  into  details,  comforted  Ma  with  good 
news:  a  fresh  contract  signed  with  Bill  and  Boom,  after 
that,  the  Harrasford  tour :  big  salaries  now.  .  .  . 

"No,  dear,  this  isn't  the  time  to  worry  Lily  about 
trifles.  And  I  don't  want  her  to  be  bothered  with  use- 
less work,  either." 

74 


CURTAIN    RISES  75 

"Call  home  work  useless !  A  woman's  greatest  charm !" 
exclaimed  Ma. 

Lily  was  a  subject  of  friendly  discussion  to  them.  Both 
adored  her  equally :  both  were  proud  of  her  at  heart. 
For  Lily  was  growing  very  beautiful ;  everybody  said  so 
at  the  theater:  the  stage-manager;  the  acting  manager, 
down  to  Jimmy,  who  stammered  things.  It  was  an  end- 
less series  of  compliments ;  Harrasford's  friend,  the 
architect,  who  had  not  seen  her  for  a  long  time,  fell  into 
raptures  when  he  met  her  on  the  stage : 

"Magneeficent !"  he  exclaimed,  in  his  Franco-Belgian 
accent.  "How  old  is  she:  sixteen?  seventeen?" 

"Fourteen,"  said  Ma,  with  a  mincing  air,  for  to  that 
damned  "parley-voo"  she  was  as  anxious  to  make  Lily 
out  a  child  now,  in  order  to  keep  a  firmer  hold  of  her,  as 
she  had  been  to  increase  her  age  in  America,  so  as  to 
make  her  work. 

"What,  fourteen,  Ma !"  protested  Lily. 

"Yes,  fourteen,  of  course ;  do  you  think  you  know  bet- 
ter than  your  mother,  you  little  fool?  Can't  you  see 
everybody's  laughing  at  you  ?" 

Ma  dreaded  those  irresponsible  jossers,  who  filled  Lily's 
head  with  a  pack  of  false  notions,  and  kept  a  good  watch, 
in  her  growing  anxiety. 

Ma,  in  the  early  days  of  their  arrival  in  London,  had 
been  terribly  obsessed  by  the  dread  of  being  left  with- 
out means  in  the  huge  city.  Lily  had  got  them  out 
of  that  difficulty.  And  now  she  was  earning  such  a  lot 
of  money:  one  day,  who  knows,  they  would  have  made 
enough  to  assure  their  independence  for  good  and  all ! 
When  she  thought  of  this  possibility,  Ma's  eyes  lit  up 
with  yellow  gleams;  she  felt  like  catching  hold  of  Lily 
and  locking  her  up  in  a  safe. 


76  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Pa  was  less  eager  for  gain,  less  ant-like  in  his  econo- 
mies ;  he  was  an  artiste,  above  all ;  he  knew  how  to  make 
allowances;  there  was  a  time  for  work  and  a  time  for 
play.  He  often  treated  himself  to  the  pleasure  of  taking 
Lily  out ;  and,  each  time,  as  usual,  she  got  a  nice  little 
present— he  liked  to  pass  for  a  Pa  who  spoiled  his 
daughter,  loved  to  hear  himself  so  described,  and  took  a 
wicked  delight  in  repeating  it  all  to  Mrs.  Clifton. 

Lily  was  the  gainer  by  the  difference  in  opinion ;  she 
felt  herself  a  little  freer.  When  she  went  out  in  the 
morning,  she  considered  herself  at  liberty  to  walk  less 
fast,  and  no  longer  trembled  on  returning.  She  loved 
to  loiter  in  the  Tottenham  Court  Road ;  her  little  person 
assumed  an  air  of  importance;  if,  after  practice,  some 
artiste  passed  her  in  the  street  and  gave  her  a  smile,  she 
believed  that  he  was  waiting1  for  her ;  a  "comic  quartet," 
the  Out-of-Tune  Musicals,  happening  to  come  out  of  a 
bar  and  blow  a  kiss  to  her,  were  there  on  her  account, 
she  thought — four  lovers  at  a  swoop! 

It  was  almost  impossible  that  she  should  not  meet 
Trampy,  who  was  always  prowling  about  from  bar  to 
bar,  between  Oxford  Street  and  Leicester  Square.  She 
did  meet  him,  in  fact.  Trampy,  that  day,  wore  a  felt  hat, 
a  blue  suit,  a  red  tie,  with  a  sixpenny  Murias  cocked  in  the 
corner  of  his  mouth,  and  he  greeted  her  with  a  trium- 
phant "Hullo,  peach !"  as  she  passed.  Lily  was  quite  ex- 
cited, stopped  just  long  enough  to  refuse  a  drink  and 
then  left  him  very  quickly.  She  was  afraid  it  showed 
on  her  face,  when  she  got  home,  and  his  words  still  rang 
in  her  ears,  that  she  was  awfully  pretty,  the  prettiest 
girl  on  the  stage,  a  peach,  a  duck,  a  pearl,  a  daisy,  a  bird. 

All  that  she  had  seen  and  heard  in  her  jostled  existence, 
now  came  back  to  her,  grew  and  sprouted  in  her  .  .  . 


CURTAIN    RISES  77 

now  that  Lily  was  being  made  love  to  by  gentlemen,  not 
the  monkey-faces  or  the  blue-chins,  but  men  like  Trampy, 
her  craving  for  admiration  oozed  out  of  her  at  every 
pore.  .  .  . 

Trampy!  Lily  did  not  care  for  Trampy;  but  she 
thought  him  amiable,  polite  with  the  girls.  .  .  .  She 
was  grateful  to  him  for  being  there  to  say  pretty  things 
to  her  when  she  passed.  She  preferred  that  type  to 
men  like  Jimmy,  for  instance,  savages  who  always  seemed 
on  the  point  of  speaking  and  never  opened  their  mouths ; 
with  them,  she  thought,  a  wife  would  be  bored  to  death. 
Besides,  Jimmy,  pooh,  a  common  workman,  a  josser! 
While  Trampy  was  an  artiste,  a  bill-topper  and  rich,  no 
doubt.  You  had  only  to  listen  to  Trampy  to  see  that  he 
was  very  well  off!  Chocolates,  sweets,  jewelry,  ostrich- 
feathers,  patent-leather  boots,  everything!  He  would 
have  loaded  her  with  presents,  if  she  had  let  him,  but  she 
had  never  accepted  anything  except  a  little  gold  ring, 
which  she  hid  in  her  pocket  when  she  came  in,  for,  if  Ma 
had  caught  sight  of  it,  gee,  what  a  smacking ! 

Trampy  often  met  her ;  he  seemed  almost  to  do  so  on 
purpose;  he  found  pretty  speeches,  compliments  which 
he  had  already  uttered  a  score  of  times  to  ever  so  many 
girls,  on  ever  so  many  stages,  like  a  real  Don  Juan  who 
had  been  all  over  the  world  and  everywhere  picked 
up  love-speeches  and  jokes  to  "fetch"  the  ladies  with.  He 
tickled  her  vanity,  told  her  that  a  dear  little  girl  like  her 
was  cut  out  for  dress,  that  a  big  hat  with  ostrich  feathers 
would  go  well  with  her  fair  hair  and  that  men,  by  Jove, 
ought  to  go  on  their  knees  whenever  they  spoke  to  her ! 

All  this  hummed  and  buzzed  in  her  head.  At  night, 
when  she  fell  asleep  in  Maud's  arms,  she  dreamed  of  big 
hats  and  fine  dresses  and  referred  to  it  during  the  day. 


78  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Pa  hardly  knew  what  to  think ;  if  she  did  as  well  as  last 
night — three  encores — Lily  could  have  half  a  sovereign, 
to  buy  a  new  hat  in  the  Tottenham  Court  Road  with,  said 
Pa. 

"Oh,  Pa,  I  shall  do  all  right,  you'll  see.  Will  you  be 
very  nice?  Then  get  me  that  one  at  two  guineas,  you 
know,  in  Regent  Street." 

"But  you're  mad,  Lily !"  said  Pa,  without  attaching  too 
much  importance  to  it,  for  he  had  other  cares :  agents  to 
see,  letters  to  write,  business,  damn  it ! 

That  took  down  Lily's  cheek  a  bit;  but  her  luxurious 
ideas  returned,  nevertheless.  For  instance,  from  admiring 
the  Three  Graces  or  the  Gilson  girl,  who  looked  like 
Venuses  in  their  silk  tights  and  whose  entrance  on  the 
stage  caused  every  opera-glass  to  glint  upon  them, 
the  wish  to  appear  in  tights  began  to  grow  on  Lily. 
Oh,  not  the  plain  tights  of  living  statues;  no,  but  with 
flowers  and  leaves  embroidered  here  and  there  and  jet 
braid  laced  about  the  right  arm.  She  was  tired  of 
bloomers  and  told  Pa  so,  straight  out,  when  the  appren- 
tices had  left  the  room  and  Pa,  stretched  in  his  easy- 
chair,  seemed  in  a  good  temper.  Pa  thought  this  notion 
about  tights,  silly : 

"They're  very  nice,  those  bloomers ;  those  little  shirts. 
Ask  your  mother." 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  Ma  sarcastically,  "but  bloomers  are 
made  at  home,  in  the  afternoon ;  you  have  to  stitch  them 
yourself,  dear.  Tights,  which  you  buy  ready-made  and 
which  cost  just  ten  times  as  much  and  last  only  half  as 
long,  are  much  more  convenient,  aren't  they,  Lily?  To 
say  nothing  of  the  absurdity  of  an  ugly  girl  like  you  show- 
ing yourself  in  tights !" 

"And  the  troupe,"  said  Pa.    "What  would  the  troupe 


CURTAIN    RISES  79 

look  like  ?  Might  as  well  not  have  a  troupe ;  there'd  be 
no  one  but  you!" 

"Well,  what  harm  would  that  do  ?  I  am  the  troupe !" 
said  Lily,  tossing  her  obstinate  forehead.  "And  all  the 
money  you  give  them  you  could  give  me !" 

"Lily,"  said  Pa,  alarmed,  "you  deserve  to  be  smacked 
for  that !" 

"Oh,  Pa,  what  an  idea!"  said  Lily,  who  was  just  ar- 
ranging her  fringe  before  the  glass.  "A  Pa  to  beat  his 
Lily  for  a  little  thing  like  that,  away  from  work !"  And, 
darting  a  bright  smile  at  Pa,  "You  never  would,  Pa, 
would  you?"  she  ventured. 

Clifton,  taken  aback,  looked  at  his  Lily,  as  if  to  say 
that  she  was  right,  damn  it !  But  Ma,  in  her  fury,  cried : 

"Wait  a  bit !    You  shall  see  if  7  would !" 

Bang!  A  box  on  the  ears,  followed  by  an  order  to 
go  to  her  room,  on  dry  bread  and  water,  impudence ! 
And  practise  her  banjo  till  the  evening! 

The  blow  itself  was  nothing,  but  what  an  humiliation 
for  Lily,  who,  only  yesterday,  had  been  told  that  she 
had  the  sweetest  nose  in  the  world,  cheeks  to  cover  with 
kisses,  eyes,  lovely  eyes :  there  wasn't  a  girl  in  a  hundred 
with  eyes  like  that,  by  Jove!  And  those  lovely  eyes 
were  only  fit  to  cry  with !  And  those  pretty  cheeks  Ma 
had  covered  with  smacks !  When  she  thought  of  it,  she  felt 
inclined  to  kick  over  the  traces.  Did  they  think  her  such 
a  kid,  then,  her  Pa  and  Ma  ?  She'd  show  Ma  if  she  was 
fourteen !  She'd  be  off  like  the  others.  Lily,  at  this  idea, 
felt  her  heart  come  into  her  mouth :  no,  no ;  she  would 
never  dare ;  she  never  would.  She  swore  it  to  herself ; 
took  the  great  oath  of  the  stage :  three  fingers  of  her  right 
hand  uplifted,  the  left  hand  on  her  lucky  charm.  And  yet, 
one  day,  she  would  marry.  She  didn't  lack  chances,  if 


80  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

she  wanted  them.  And  a  gentleman,  too!  And  her  Pa 
and  Ma,  to  disgust  her,  of  course,  pretended  that  he  was 
married!  They  must  take  her  for  an  idiot:  how  could 
Trampy  be  married,  considering-  that  he  had  suggested 

.    .    suggested  different  things  to  her  ?    .    .    . 

Lily  brooded  like  this,  reviewing  the  tiny  events  of 
which  her  life  was  made  up.  Then  a  gleam  of  sun- 
shine came  to  change  her  thoughts.  She  amused  herself 
by  breathing  on  the  window-pane,  making  a  circle  .  .  . 
wrote  a  name  with  her  finger  and  quickly  licked  it  out 
with  her  tongue  .  .  .  and  Lily  brooded  .  .  . 
brooded  .  .  . 

But  Ma's  voice  made  her  jump : 

"What  are  you  doing  there,  you  good-for-nothing? 
I  told  you  to  take  your  banjo !" 

"Yes,  Ma,"  Lily  replied  mechanically,  with  her  nose 
glued  to  the  window. 

"Do  you  hear,  Mr.  Clifton  ?"  said  Ma  furiously.  "That's 
the  way  she  obeys !" 

Mrs.  Clifton  had  no  doubt  whatever  that  there  was  a 
man  at  the  bottom  of  it  ...  a  flirtation  .  .  . 
something  or  other.  It  was  useless  for  Ma  to  pro- 
vide for  everything,  to  do  her  best  to  oppose  Mr. 
Clifton's  weakness.  There  was  Lily  now,  taking  up  an 
independent  attitude.  She  thought  herself  pretty,  no 
doubt;  some  booby  must  have  been  stuffing  her  up, 
making  love  to  her,  to  laugh  at  her  later  on!  If  she, 
Mrs.  Clifton,  had  been  a  man,  she  would  certainly  never 
look  at  that  ill-mannered  baggage  ;  but  the  London  jossers 
liked  that  brazen  type!  And  to  think  that  time  was 
passing  .  .  .  passing!  .  .  .  Oh,  Ma  would  have 
liked  to  get  hold  of  the  man  who  invented  the  law 
about  girls  coming  of  age  .  .  .  and  love  .  .  .  and 


CURTAIN    RISES  81 

marriage!  A  fierce  jealousy  seized  upon  her  at  the 
thought.  Lily  would  have  bouquets,  champagne  suppers ; 
Lily  would  be  loved  by  gentlemen!  Tell  Lily  that  she 
was  pretty  and,  in  less  than  six  months  the  little  hussy 
would  think  herself  a  fine  lady !  And,  on  that  day,  Mrs. 
Clifton  would  wash  her  hands  of  her! 

These  continued  attacks  ended  by  shaking  Pa.  He 
didn't  quite  know  what  to  say ;  there  was  a  certain  amount 
of  truth  in  it : 

"But,"  he  persisted,  "why  should  she  go?  She  has 
everything  she  wants  here  ?" 

But  he  was  more  and  more  annoyed ;  yes,  he  admitted, 
he  was  wrong  to  laugh  at  Mr.  Fuchs :  you  must  never  set 
children  a  bad  example.  And,  from  that  moment,  once 
his  attention  had  been  called  to  the  matter,  he  daily  dis- 
covered fresh  causes  for  uneasiness :  where  the  devil  did 
she  get  that  love  of  dress  from  ?  And  who  sent  her  that 
bouquet  behind  the  scenes  the  other  night?  Why,  Lily 
wanted  to  have  it  handed  to  her  across  the  footlights,  like 
a  singer ! 

And  Pa  and  Ma  watched  Lily  like  a  bag  of  money  on 
which  one  keeps  one's  hand,  for  fear  of  pickpockets.  Ma 
doubled  her  precautions. 

The  gentlemen  in  the  front  boxes,  especially,  alarmed 
her,  even  more  than  the  Jim  Crows :  creatures  apart,  dev- 
ilish creatures,  the  gentlemen  in  the  front  boxes!  She 
fancied  she  saw  a  reflection  of  hell  in  the  eye-glass  of 
every  one  of  them.  If  ever  Lily  dared  to  smile  to  them, 
she  knew  what  awaited  her!  Ma  would  get  angry  for 
nothing  at  all ;  she  even  scolded  Lily  for  allowing  herself 
to  be  approached  on  the  stage  by  a  contributor  to  The 
Piccadilly  Magazine,  which  was  publishing  articles  on 
The  Little  Favorites  of  the  Public. 


82  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"I  am  sure  you  only  told  him  a  lot  of  nonsense,"  said 
Ma.  "A  girl  should  call  her  mother  in  a  case  like  that. 
What  have  you  to  do  with  the  public?  Aren't  you 
ashamed  ?" 

No,  Lily  was  not  ashamed.  She  was  exasperated 
rather.  And  she  had  not  told  the  journalist  any  lies: 
just  the  plain  truth,  in  her  own  little  way.  Sweat  and 
blood!  Broken  legs!  Broken  arms!  And  here,  there, 
there,  all  over  her  body,  scars  deep  enough  to  put 
your  finger  in!  That  would  revenge  her  a  bit  for  the 
way  in  which  she  was  treated.  She  knew  that,  when  the 
article  appeared,  she  would  catch  it  at  Pa's  hands;  but 
never  mind !  She  had  told  everything,  everything,  in  re- 
venge; just  as  she  might  have  flung  her  bike  at  their 
heads  in  a  fit  of  anger ! 


CHAPTER  V 

There  had  been  a  terrible  scene  at  home  that  day.  Ma 
had  searched  Lily's  trunk  and  had  not,  it  is  true,  discov- 
ered the  love  letters  which  she  believed  to  be  hidden 
there,  but  she  had  found  a  ring!  It  was  Trampy's  ring, 
which  Lily,  who  usually  concealed  it  about  her  person, 
had  left  by  accident  in  the  trunk  among  her  things.  Ma's 
face  was  a  sight,  when  she  came  down  to  the  dining-room. 
She  was  so  upset  that  Pa  asked  her : 

"Are  you  ill,  dear?" 

Ma,  without  answering  the  question,  pushed  the  ring 
under  his  nose  and  screamed  that  she  had  told  him  so : 

"An  engagement  ring,  dear;  an  engagement  ring! 
Perhaps  you'll  believe  me  now !" 

Pa  and  Ma,  when  they  had  recovered  from  their  sur- 
prise, had  time  to  lay  their  heads  together  and  replace  the 
ring,  pretending  to  know  nothing,  to  be  watching  more 
closely  than  ever  .  .  .  and  then  Pa  had  gone  out; 
for,  if  Lily,  who  was  walking  with  the  apprentices,  had 
come  home  just  then,  he  could  not  have  resisted  the 
temptation  to  smack  her  face.  It  was  better  to  go  out 
and  postpone  the  explanation  until  later.  He  had,  in- 
deed, resolved  never  to  beat  his  daughter  again  .  .  . 
but  still !  And  he  clenched  his  fists  and  ground  his  teeth 
when  he  reached  the  theater. 

On  the  stage,  he  looked  round  for  Tom,  who  should 
have  been  there  to  mend  a  tire.  He  saw  nothing  at  first : 

83 


84  THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

only  a  few  electric  lamps  studding  the  darkness ;  a  faint 
glimmer  lighting  up  a  number  of  properties ;  farther  on, 
the  dull  gleam  of  stacked-up  bikes ;  and,  lastly,  Tom,  with 
his  cap  cocked  back  and  trousers  turned  up,  trying— 
brrr ! — to  do  a  clog-dance ! 

"Bravo,  Tom!"  shouted  Clifton,  the  moment  he  saw 
him.  "Just  you  wait  a  bit.  I'll  teach  you  to  dance :  with 
the  clogs  on  your  hands  and  your  head  downwards,  damn 
it !  Here,  take  this  to  go  on  with !"  continued  Pa,  fetch- 
ing him  a  clout  on  the  shoulder.  "And  get  to  the  bikes 
and  hurry  up,  or  I'll  smash  your  jaw  in !" 

Meanwhile,  Jimmy  had  also  come,  unseen  by  Pa.  And 
the  great  batten  lit  up:  the  stage  came  to  life  again. 
Right  up  above,  in  the  galleries  from  which  the  ropes 
were  worked,  mysterious  forms  moved  to  and  fro.  The 
iron  curtain  rose  .  .  .  there  was  a  clash  of  orches- 
tra ...  Jimmy,  with  his  back  against  the  drop-scene 
and  his  face  to  the  stage,  gave  sharp  orders.  .  .  . 

Pa  watched  the  scene  vaguely  from  the  wings.  He 
gnawed  his  mustache:  the  apprentices  would  be  there 
soon,  with  his  Lily.  And  he  had  something  to  say  to 
the  stage-manager ;  something  of  a  delicate  character. 

But  Clifton  was  surprised  to  see  Jimmy  instead  of  the 
usual  stage-manager: 

"Hullo !    So  it's  you  now,"  he  couldn't  help  saying. 

"Why,  yes,  Mr.  Clifton ;  since  this  morning.  The  other 
chap's  ill,  you  know.  Harrasford  asked  me  to  take  his 
place  .  .  .  for  a  few  days,  I  suppose  ...  or 
perhaps  longer.  Do  you  want  to  speak  to  me,  Mr.  Clif- 
ton?" added  Jimmy,  observing  Pa's  look  of  embarrass- 
ment. "Just  a  minute  and  I  am  yours." 

Two  tall  footmen,  caparisoned  in  velvet  and  gold,  dis- 
appeared behind  the  curtain  with  the  number  of  the  next 


CURTAIN    RISES  85 

turn.  They  came  back  in  a  few  seconds.  Jimmy  pressed 
a  button.  The  stage  filled  with  light  and  noise,  the  turn 
marked  on  the  program  entered  and,  suddenly,  under  the 
dazzling  light,  it  was  a  series  of  somersaults,  of  flights 
from  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  the  muffled  fall  of  feet  on 
the  thick  carpet. 

"There  will  be  eight  minutes  of  this,"  said  Jimmy,  tak- 
ing out  his  watch.  "What  have  you  to  say  to  me,  Mr. 
Clifton?" 

Oh,  what  he  had  to  say  was  very  simple ;  he  wouldn't 
have  mentioned  it  himself,  but  Mrs.  Clifton  had  asked 
him  to.  To  cut  a  long  story  short,  wasn't  it  a  shame  that 
gentlemen  should  throw  bouquets  on  the  stage  when  Lily 
was  giving  her  show  ?  Like  last  night,  for  instance :  why, 
it  was  making  game  of  a  child,  putting  ideas  into  her 
head !  Lily,  of  course,  paid  no  attention  to  it.  However, 
was  it  or  was  it  not  allowed  to  throw  or  send  bouquets 
on  the  stage? 

"Why,  you  know  it  is !"  said  Jimmy.  "How  would  you 
have  me  prevent  it  ?" 

If  he  could  have  prevented  it,  he  would.  To  begin 
with,  Jimmy  realized  the  bothers  which  it  brought  down 
upon  Lily.  Moreover,  Jimmy,  who  was  vaguely  uneasy 
himself,  wondered  who  that  ardent  admirer  could  be. 
Some  of  Roofer's  girls  thought  they  had  recognized 
Trampy,  from  the  stage,  in  the  front  seats.  What  Jimmy 
had  heard  of  Trampy  did  not  inspire  him  with  confi- 
dence. And  Trampy,  it  appeared,  was  making  love  to 
Lily.  Mr.  Fuchs  had  met  them  at  the  corner  of  Oxford 
Street  and  Newman  Street.  The  story  was  quite  definite. 

Jimmy  was  astonished  at  the  audacity  of  a  Trampy: 
what  could  he  say  to  her?  he  asked  himself,  what  could 
he  propose  to  her?  Marriage?  He  was  married,  they 


86  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

said,  in  America.  To  run  away  with  him  ?  His  scandal- 
ous life,  his  habit  of  easy  conquest  made  this  very  likely. 
Jimmy  had  seen  plenty  of  others,  big  ones  who  topped 
the  bill  and  who  did  not  despise  a  girl's  companion- 
ship— on  the  contrary — and  six  months  later,  a  year, 
two  years  later,  left  the  girl  in  a  hole,  stranded,  undone ; 
mustard  and  game  for  Jim  Crow.  And  he  grew  more 
and  more  anxious  on  Lily's  behalf:  not  that  Lily  would 
come  to  that !  Yet  he  had  seen  plenty  of  them,  since  he 
had  frequented  the  stage,  plenty  of  Lilies  who  had  taken 
to  flight  for  injuries  often  less  serious  than  hers.  He 
could  have  mentioned  names :  his  head  was  full  of  those 
who  let  their  anger,  or  their  folly,  get  the  better  of  them 
and  escaped  at  random,  and  who  went  back  to  every-day 
life — through  the  door  of  scandal — sometimes  to  meet 
with  worse :  martyrdom  of  the  heart,  base  exploitation  in 
the  name  of  love.  Oh,  he  pitied  them  from  the  bottom 
of  his  soul !  No,  Lily  shouldn't  run  away :  it  was  impossi- 
ble! But  what  a  pity,  all  the  same,  that  he  could  think 
of  it!  And  what  chance,  what  meeting  would  settle  her 
fate  and  make  her — who  could  say  ? — the  companion  of  a 
loving  heart,  or  a  prey  to  some  footy  rotter  ?  Oh,  how  he 
would  have  liked  to  go  for  Trampy,  to  break  his  jaw  for 
him,  to  teach  him  to  mind  his  business  and  leave  Lily 
alone !  And  what  Jimmy  wanted  to  do  he  was  never  far 
from  doing!  And,  then,  oh,  if  he  could  procure  a  good 
position  for  Clifton,  as  an  equivalent  for  his  star  and 
make  Lily  love  him,  marry  him:  that  would  be  better 
still ! 

This  idea,  perhaps,  without  his  knowing  it,  dominated 
his  present  life,  doubled  his  power  of  work:  to  invent 
something!  To  get  himself  talked  about!  To  make 
money,  plenty  of  money,  become  somebody !  Others  be- 


CURTAIN    RISES  87 

fore  him  had  risen  from  nothing.  Harrasford,  to  go 
no  farther  ...  a  chap  who  had  climbed  every  rung 
of  the  ladder :  a  small  music-hall  first ;  then  two ;  then  a 
big  one;  then  two;  then  ten.  And  a  whole  army  now 
toiling  and  moiling  for  him  every  night,  for  him  the  chief 
and  master. 

"Oh !"  thought  Jimmy.  "If  I  could  only  climb  the  lad- 
der too!" 

First  of  all,  he  must  choose  his  line,  for  his  efforts  to 
tell.  And,  since  chance  had  given  him  a  start  at  the  thea- 
ter, why  not  go  on?  Here  his  scientific  luggage  would 
be  of  use  to  him.  It  was  only  a  question  of  adding 
pluck  to  it.  He  was  the  man  to  do  so  and  now  more 
than  ever.  Things  which  used  to  seem  impossible  to 
him,  such  as  his  invention  published  in  Engineering,  ap- 
peared quite  feasible,  now  that  he  had  watched  Lily 
do  her  wonderful  feats  of  balancing  on  the  stage.  It  was 
only  a  question  of  courage  and  hard  practice.  Another 
line  suggested  itself:  to  find  capital  and  start  a  theater. 
As  regards  the  stage  itself,  by  this  time  he  understood 
the  management  of  it  from  grid  to  cellar.  He  seemed 
to  take  in  at  a  glance  that  huge  entirety,  from  the 
flies  with  their  windlasses,  their  bridges,  the  labyrinth 
of  stairs,  the  maze  of  passages,  down  to  the  dressing- 
rooms  and  the  painted  faces  that  filled  them:  here,  a 
Lily;  there,  a  buck  nigger;  farther  on,  a  living-picture 
girl.  He  felt  all  this  rustle  round  him,  carried  it  all  in 
his  head:  he  knew  it  all,  from  the  porter's  box  at  the 
stage-door  to  the  glittering  front  of  the  house,  with  its 
palm-trees  and  its  liveried  chuckers-out.  Jimmy  knew 
what  to  think  of  the  enchantments  of  the  stage,  those 
luminous  visions  which  the  audience  admired  to  the  tune 
of  the  orchestra :  jealousies,  vanities,  hatreds  to  knock  up 


88  THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

against  and  calm  down;  recruits  to  put  through  their 
paces;  and  the  whole  day  of  it — and  the  whole  night, 
too— for  a  few  pounds  a  week,  including  the  tips  received 
from  the  artistes,  twenty-five  to  forty  shillings  a  month. 

But  Jimmy  had  his  idea:  he  was  determined  to  obtain 
a  thorough  grasp  of  the  business ;  he  had  already  taken 
possession  of  the  stage-manager's  room  and  of  his  desk 
with  the  many  compartments :  photographs,  programs, 
contracts,  electric  light,  staff,  scenery.  A  whole  small 
people  depended  upon  him,  and  asked  his  advice,  bragged 
of  its  successes  or  told  him  of  its  misfortunes.  And  here 
again  was  Clifton  continuing  his  jeremiads:  they  would 
drive  his  daughter  silly  by  making  game  of  her,  pretend- 
ing to  be  in  love  with  her,  at  her  age!  Jimmy  listened 
attentively,  with  one  eye  on  the  stage  and  the  other  on  his 
watch :  » 

"Tut !"  he  said,  trying  to  arrange  things.  "There's  no 
great  harm  in  receiving  bouquets  on  the  stage.  However, 
as  you  object,  if  any  more  of  them  come,  they  shall  be 
handed  to  you,  to  dispose  of  as  you  please.  That's  all  that 
I  can  do." 

It  was  gradually  filling  up  behind  Clifton  and  Jimmy ; 
the  iron  door  was  constantly  slamming  upon  the  passage ; 
knowing-looking  Roofer  girls  passed,  two  by  two,  always 
two  by  two,  joked  for  a  moment  with  the  scene  shifters, 
shook  hands  here  and  there,  disappeared  up  the  dressing- 
room  staircase.  There  was  life,  swarming  life,  every- 
where in  the  corners,  behind  the  back-cloth.  The  New 
Zealanders  arrived,  with  Lily  and  her  Ma,  for  Ma  never 
left  her  now,  for  fear  of  the  gentlemen  who  prowled 
around  like  famished  hyenas :  villains  who  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  throw  bouquets  on  the  stage  to  make  ugly  girls 
think  they  were  pretty ! 


CURTAIN    RISES  89 

Lily  seemed  sad.  She  stopped  for  a  moment.  A  haunt- 
ing serenade  droned  across  the  stage,  a  Spanish  melody 
sung  by  soft  tremolo  voices,  with  tapping  of  tambourines. 
It  reminded  her  of  Mexico:  everything  reminded  her  of 
that  time  now.  She  compared  herself  with  Ave  Maria. 
Oh,  she  would  have  liked  to  tell  the  whole  world  how 
she  was  treated,  just  the  plain  truth! — in  her  own  little 
way.  But  no  one  cared,  not  even  that  rotten  josser  of  a 
journalist,  with  his  article  published  in  The  Piccadilly 
Magazine.  It  made  her  out  a  spoiled  child,  who  had 
learned  to  ride  in  the  country-lanes,  with  her  French 
governess,  and  who  had  surprised  her  father  and  mother 
by  coming  home  one  day  with  her  head  on  the  saddle 
of  her  bicycle  and  her  feet  in  the  air,  thereby  causing  an 
unparalleled  scandal  in  that  old  Yorkshire  family.  Since 
then,  they  had  been  obliged  to  yield  to  her  fancies  and 
allow  her  to  go  on  the  stage  with  her  little  troupe  of 
friends.  Her  salary  ?  Ten  pounds  a  night.  Her  recrea- 
tion? The  banjo  .  .  . 

"Rotten  josser  of  a  journalist !"  thought  Lily. 

Nevertheless,  she  was  flattered  at  heart  because  of  the 
ten  pounds  a  night  and  the  governess. 

But  things  happened  to  distract  her  thoughts:  the 
Three  Graces  entered  in  their  turn,  followed  by  Nunkie ; 
they  stood  talking  for  a  few  moments,  while  the  appren- 
tices went  and  dressed;  and-  Lily  soon  followed  them, 
after  a  last  glance  at  a  little  woman  and  her  "partner," 
who  were  getting  things  ready  for  their  performance — 
some  little  hoops,  two  cardboard  bottles,  gilt  balls — and 
then  waited  humbly  in  the  shadow. 

Lily  recognized  Para,  who  used  to  exhibit  a  troupe  of 
parrots ;  somebody  had  put  her  "in  his  show,"  no  doubt, 
the  Para-Paras,  a  new  turn. 


90  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"How  poor  she  looks !"  Lily  could  not  help  whispering 
to  Ma. 

"You'll  be  worse  off  yourself,  some  day,"  said  Ma,  "if 
you  go  on  as  you're  doing !  Don't  laugh  at  other  people." 

Lily  had  dressed  quickly  and  had  come  down  to  the 
stage  with  the  Three  Graces  and  they  had  ten  minutes  of 
joking  behind  the  scenes,  while  Ma  was  still  up-stairs, 
busy  with  the  girls.  Thea  walked  on  tip-toe  to  restore 
the  circulation  to  her  legs ;  Kala  practised  back-bendings : 
Lily  applauded  with  the  tip  of  her  thumb-nail,  flung  back 
her  head  and  laughed  and,  from  time  to  time,  looked 
round  over  her  shoulder  to  see  if  Ma  was  coming  down. 

She  amused  herself  also  by  feeling  Thea's  arms,  all 
those  little  muscles  which  stood  out,  man's  arms :  she 
would  have  liked  to  nestle  in  them,  to  feel  herself  squeezed 
till  she  cried  out.  And  everything  around  them  savored 
of  love :  there  were  lots  of  Roofers ;  little  intrigues  were 
embarked  upon;  there  were  stifled  fits  of  laughter  and 
cries  of  "Hands  off!"  and  "Stop !"  Amorous  speeches  and 
stories  of  romantic  adventures  were  exchanged  in  whis- 
pers ;  the  flight  of  the  Gilson  girl,  the  other  day,  at  Liver- 
pool, was  told  in  full  detail ;  a  Roofer,  it  seemed,  giving 
a  high  kick  the  day  before,  had  sent  her  slipper  flying 
into  the  audience ;  it  was  returned  to  her  filled  with  choco- 
late creams;  and  to-day  there  was  a  boquet  with  a  let- 
ter in  it. 

Ting!  The  curtain,  the  light;  and,  on  the  stage,  the 
Roofers  were  glittering  with  gold  and  silver  and  their 
boyish  voices  came  in  gusts,  punctuated  by  the  jerky 
flights  of  their  short  skirts. 

"Your  old  sweetheart,  eh,  Lily?"  said  Thea,  pointing  to 
the  boy- violinist,  who  had  just  arrived. 

Lily  had  only  a  careless  glance  for  the  boy-violinist, 


CURTAIN    RISES  91 

who  was  wiping  his  eye-glasses  and  pulling  at  his  cuffs, 
while  a  call-boy  was  adjusting  the  false  seat  into  which 
two  bull-dogs  would  presently  dig  their  teeth.  All  the 
fascination  was  gone  for  Lily :  it  was  no  longer  the  child 
prodigy;  a  grotesque  Orpheus,  in  a  laurel  and  parsley 
crown,  he  now  introduced  his  music-hating  dogs,  who  in- 
terrupted his  performance  with  plaintive  and  angry  howls 
and  ended  by  leaping  at  the  seat  of  his  trousers  in  a  mad 
rush  across  the  stage. 

Lily,  who  had  "gone  through  the  mill,"  looked  upon 
him  as  a  mere  josser,  had  for  him  the  instinctive  con- 
tempt entertained  by  the  real  artiste  for  those  fiddlers, 
those  singers,  those  dancers  and  other  drones  brought 
up  with  blows  of  the  hat. 

"Pooh !  I  have  some  one  better  than  that,"  exclaimed 
Lily,  excited  by  the  proximity  of  the  Roofers. 

"If  you  have  any  one  better  than  that  and  he  loves 
you,"  said  Thea,  in  a  dreamy  voice,  "love  him,  Lily,  keep 
him ;  as  for  me,  I  no  longer  risk  having  to  do  with  men." 

"I  do!"  Lily  whispered,  with  a  frightened  glance 
around  her.  "As  much  as  I  can !  I  love  talking  to  men ! 
Why,  Thea,  and  don't  you  like  love  letters  and  p.-c.'s  ?" 

Ting!  Ting!  Orpheus  left  the  stage,  with  his  bull- 
dogs hanging  to  him. 

Ting !  It  was  dark  again ;  ropes,  plated  rings  were  let 
down  from  the  flies;  the  Three  Graces,  like  quivering- 
marble  statues,  took  one  another  by  the  hand  to  make 
their  entrance. 

Ting!  From  their  perches  on  either  side,  two  elec- 
tricians sent  the  limelight  beating  down  on  an  involved 
group  of  ropes,  bars  and  hardened  limbs. 

Ting !  A  crescendo  in  the  orchestra  and,  bowing  to  the 
audience  across  the  footlights,  the  Three  Graces  made 


92  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

their  exit,  their  smiles  suddenly  hollowed  out  into  tired 
wrinkles,  but  cheerful  nevertheless.  And  Nunkie  wiped 
their  foreheads  with  his  checked  handkerchief,  helped 
them  on  with  their  big  cloaks ;  and  the  three  goddesses 
were  now  just  a  wrapped-up  group,  limping  off  to  the 
staircase,  like  gouty  patients  at  a  spa. 

Ting!  A  forest  scene  is  let  down,  the  wings  are  shifted. 
A  click  of  chains,  a  flash  of  steel.  The  bikes  in  the  shad- 
ow, the  apprentices  mounted,  Lily  leading. 

"And  try  to  do  your  best,  mv_  Lily." 

"Yes,  Pa." 

"And  try  to  behave." 

"Yes,  Ma." 

Ting! 

Lily  gave  a  nervous  smile.  She  always  felt  a  little 
thrill  before  going  on.  Then,  quick,  in  Indian  file,  two 
and  two,  three  and  three,  the  New  Zealanders  whirled 
round  in  the  light,  to  the  roar  of  a  triumphal  air. 

Pa  ground  his  teeth  and  clenched  his  fists  the  moment 
he  heard  his  music:  at  the  mere  sight  of  his  Lily,  his 
seven  stone  of  flesh  and  bones  adapted  to  the  machine, 
unerring  and  exact,  an  immense  intoxication  exalted  his 
pride,  gladness  dilated  his  heart.  At  last !  He  was  there 
now:  German  discipline!  English  gracefulness!  Every- 
thing! He,  too,  would  have  his  London  home,  with  a 
lawn  behind  the  house  and  a  plot  of  rose-trees.  He  would 
learn  the  meaning  of  family  joys,  as  Nunkie  understood 
them,  with  texts  along  the  staircase:  "Welcome!"  and 
"God  bless  our  home !"  And,  more  and  more  excited,  he 
built  up  his  dream  ;  his  imagination  gave  itself  scope  amid 
the  unreal  scenery,  the  forest  depths,  the  green  and  gold 
sky  and  his  Lily,  his  faultless  Lily,  haloed  in  light! 
Every  hope  was  permissible  when  he  looked  at  his  Lily, 


CURTAIN    RISES  93 

his  joy,  his  handiwork !  His  New  Zealander  on  Wheels ! 
That  india-rubber  suppleness,  those  little  nerves  of  iron, 
his  Lily,  his  glory,  his  star,  his  own.  star!  He  ro- 
manced about  her,  dreamed  of  an  imperial  tour,  a  steamer 
of  his  own,  a  floating 
B  a  r  n  u  m's  show,  with 
Roofers,  elephants,  rhi- 
noceroses, Ave  Marias, 
dogs,  monkeys,  the  whole 
boiling;  and  Lily  starring 
on  her  bike,  stopping  in 
every  port,  from  Liver- 
pool to  Suez,  from  Suez 
to  Yokohama:  down  to 
the  desert,  damn  it,  to 
show  the  whole  world 
what  an  artiste  he,  Clif- 
ton, he,  the  father,  had 
made  of  his  Lily!  And 
he  looked  at  her  with  lov- 
ing eyes,  applauded  her 
with  a  smile,  restored  her 
self-possession  with  a 
twitch  of  the  eyebrow  SHE  NEVER  LOST  SIGHT  OK  LILY 

and  counted  her  twirls  on  the  back-wheel — O  pride  un- 
speakable ! — a  dozen ! 

Ma,  standing  by  him,  interested  herself  less  in  the  show 
and,  neglecting  the  artiste,  watched  the  daughter  and 
the  faces  she  made  at  the  gentlemen :  the  brazen  flapper, 
whose  sole  attraction  lay  in  the  wickedness  in  her  blood ! 
She  never  lost  sight  of  Lily  and  watched  her  closely,  for 
Ma  seemed  always  to  catch  her  throwing  an  appealing 
glance  to  the  seducers  in  the  front  boxes,  to  some  St. 


94*  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

George  in  full  dress  who  would  dart  across  the  footlights 
to  carry  off  her  daughter. 

Thus  caught  between  Pa  and  Ma,  Lily's  situation  was 
hard  indeed.  As  for  the  audience,  she  never  troubled 
about  it,  from  custom,  like  a  true  professional,  who 
gives  her  performance  mechanically,  without  minding 
about  the  rest.  The  audience,  to  Lily,  was,  behind  a 
streak  of  flame,  in  the  semi-darkness,  a  confused  mass 
of  black  and  gray.  All  this  had  no  existence  for  Lily  or 
the  apprentices.  The  audience  didn't  pay  them!  The 
audience  wouldn't  give  her  a  whacking  if  the  show  went 
badly !  Pa,  in  the  wings,  frightened  her  much  more  than 
all  the  audiences  in  the  world;  and  Ma  was  worse  still, 
when  a  gentleman  smiled  at  her  from  a  box.  Then  Lily 
would  stare  at  her  Ma  with  the  terrified  eye  of  a  parrot 
contemplating  Para's  whip.  She  even  exaggerated, 
pinched  her  lips,  like  a  school-girl  applying  herself  to 
her  book  for  fear  of  the  ferule.  Ma  did  not  ask  so  much 
as  that.  Sometimes,  when  Lily,  after  a  successful  trick, 
threw  out  her  chest  to  draw  breath. more  easily  and  rode 
round  the  stage  with  a  pretty  smile  on  her  lips,  Ma  saw 
no  harm  in  it,  even  rejoiced  within  herself  at  her  daugh- 
ter's beauty.  Ma  knew  how  to  be  just  and  not  to  be  angry 
for  nothing.  But  what  she  could  not  forgive,  what  exas- 
perated her  was,  just  that  very  evening,  with  her  own 
eyes,  to  see  Lily  smile  at  some  person  unknown  and  shoot 
fiery  glances  at  the  front  boxes,  the  little  devil,  who 
would  bring  them  to  the  grave  with  shame ! 

For  Lily,  it  must  be  confessed,  flung  prudence  to  the 
winds  that  night.  Her  head  was  turned  with  all  those 
love  stories.  They  sang  in  her  ears,  they  distended  her 
nostrils.  Oppressed  on  every  side,  she  escaped  in  imagina- 
tion toward  that  spacious  house,  toward  the  confused 


CURTAIN    RISES  95 

mass  in  which  her  lover  sat  hidden.  And,  in  spite  of  Pa 
and  in  spite  of  Ma,  who  stood  watching-  her  in  the  wings, 
Lily  searched  the  audience  with  her  eyes.  Was  it  really 
Trampy?  Had  he  come  back?  She  had  not  met  him  for 
some  time.  She  wanted  to  know  and  he  would  surely 
reveal  himself.  Ma  might  say  what  she  pleased.  Even 
in  the  final  pyramid,  she  looked,  while,  with  one  appren- 
tice on  her  shoulders,  another  forked  before  her,  another 
standing  behind,  two  others  on  either  side,  she  twice 
went  round  the  stage,  with  flags  waving,  to  the  hurricane 
of  the  orchestra.  And  then  ting !  And  darkness  anew,  the 
stage  suddenly  invaded  by  scene-shifters  dragging  heavy 
sets  along;  and  Lily,  passing  out,  was  seized  by  her  Ma, 
who  said: 

"Who  were  you  laughing  at?" 

"I  wasn't  laughing,  Ma!" 

"I'll  teach  you  to  make  eyes  at  gentlemen,  you  bag- 
gage you !  I  saw  you  this  time !  I  saw  you  !"  grumbled 
Ma,  who  had  the  engagement  ring  still  upon  her  mind. 
"You  shall  pay  for  this,  Lily ;  we'll  see  if  I  can  drive  the 
devil  out  of  you  or  not !" 

And  Ma  squeezed  Lily's  arm  as  if  she  meant  to  break 
it,  but  all  this  noiselessly,  in  the  shadow,  behind  the  scen- 
ery, for  fear  of  the  stage  manager.  Besides,  it  was  no- 
body's business  what  a  mother  thought  fit  to  say 
to  her  daughter,  and  Lily,  when  people  passed,  pluckily 
tried  to  smile,  so  as  to  put  them  off,  not  to  let  them  know 
that  she  was  being  beaten,  a  big  girl  like  her;  but,  as 
soon  as  they  were  gone,  she  resumed  her  rebellious  face. 

"I  wasn't  laughing,  I  wasn't  laughing,  Ma!" 

"That's  to  teach  you  to  lie !"  said  Ma,  catching  her  a 
blow  in  the  back  of  the  neck. 

The  door  of  the  staircase  had  swung  to  behind  them; 


96  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

and,  in  the  empty  passage,  the  thumps  continued  all  the 
way  to  the  dressing-room,  which  the  apprentices  had  not 
yet  reached.  Then,  once  inside,  Ma  pushed  the  bolt  and 
made  a  rush  at  Lily.  And  Lily  raised  her  elbow  in  vain : 
accompanied  by  a  furious  series  of  grunts — "Ugh !  Ugh ! 
Ugh!" — Ma's  diligent  fist  "signed  a  contract  on  her 
back": 

"And  don't  you  dare  to  cry  out,  or  I'll  give  it  you 
twice  as  hard !" 

Lily,  bruised  all  over,  felt  inclined  to  scratch  her 
mother,  like  a  wildcat ;  but  the  apprentices  were  coming. 
So  she  cooled  her  head  in  a  basin  of  cold  water  and 
dressed  with  all  speed,  assisted  by  Ma,  who  perhaps  re- 
gretted having  been  so  hasty ;  but  you  had  to  be,  with 
devils  like  that!  And  Ma's  anger  returned  when,  on 
reaching  the  stage  again,  she  was  herself,  in  accordance 
with  Jimmy's  orders,  handed  a  bouquet  intended  for 
Miss  Lily.  What,  another !  Lily,  following  her  down  the 
stairs  with  the  New  Zealanders,  saw  Ma  take  the  bouquet 
and  toss  it  through)  the  open  door. 

"Come  along,"  said  Ma.   "Give  me  your  arm,  Lily." 

And  the  New  Zealanders  walked  away  from  the 
brightly  lit-up  music-hall,  plunged  through  the  drifting 
crowd,  crossed  the  eddy  of  cabs,  motors,  'buses  and,  on 
the  pavements,  through  the  windows,  had  visions  of  ele- 
gant couples  at  sumptuous  tables.  Then  they  all  went 
through  the  dark  streets;  and  Lily,  escorted  by  Pa  and 
Ma,  followed  the  herd  of  girls.  Her  face  was  hard  and, 
from  an  angry  brow,  she  shot  glances  askance  at  flight. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Now  Trampy — even  if  he  had  to  marry  her  for  it,  by 
Jove ! — had  set  his  mind  on  having  Lily,  at  any  cost ;  and 
that  not  only  because  of  her  prettiness,  but  also  that  he 
might  play  Clifton  a  damned  good  trick  and  teach  him 
that  he  must  smart  for  treating  a  gentleman  as  he  had 
treated  him  in  Mexico.  It  would  be  paying  him  out  with 
interest  to  take  his  Lily  from  him.  Besides,  think  of  the 
credit  it  would  give  Trampy  in  the  profession  to  have  for 
his  wife  the  prettiest,  the  cleverest  girl  on  the  boards,  each 
of  whose  shows,  when  she  performed  alone,  would  be 
worth  at  least  three  pounds,  as  much  as  a  whole  troupe ! 
He  suspected  in  her  the  ripe  fruit  that  was  bound  to  drop ; 
and  he  shook  the  tree  to  hasten  the  fall.  He  considered 
his  reputation  at  stake:  he,  the  man  with  the  thirty-six 
girls*  as  he  was  called  at  the  music-hall.  He  got  caught 
in  his  own  toils  and  wanted  Lily  madly,  out  of  revenge 
and  pride  .  .  .  and  jealousy  too,  for  he  suspected 
that  Jimmy,  was  courting  her ;  and  the  idea  that  he  had 
a  rival  inflamed  his  ardor. 

In  the  evening,  pen  in  hand,  in  his  dressing-room,  or 
else  at  a  table  in  a  cafe,  after  a  second  and  a  third  glass 
of  old  port,  he  prepared  his  batteries:  letters,  post-cards, 
he  excelled  in  everything,  was  careful  about  his  phrases, 
with  the  vanity  of  an  author  whose  writings  are  widely 
quoted.  Lily  was  "fascinating"  and  "bewildering;"  he 

97 


98  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

compared  her  to  "those  strange  Indian  poppies  whose 
scent  intoxicates  a  man  and  sometimes  gives  him  death." 
Gee,  but  that  set  Lily  dreaming!  Fancy  having  all  that 
in  her!  Who  on  earth  would  have  thought  it?  Never 
mind,  it  was  very  nice. 

And  the  way  in  which  she  received  her  correspondence 
amused  her  as  much  as  the  rest.  Trampy,  it  goes  without 
saying,  did  not  write  direct:  a  few  pence  to  Tom,  who 
hated  Clifton,  and  Lily  received  the  cards  in  secret,  de- 
voured them  when  she  was  alone  and  then  quickly  tore 
them  into  little  pieces  and  sent  them  flying  through  the 
window. 

Her  trouble  was  how  to  answer.  She  really  did  not 
know  what  to  say : 

"Pa  was  so  angry  with  the  girls  yesterday.  I  got  a 
kick  of  the  pedal  on  my  shin.  Otherwise  I  am  quite 
well.  Excuse  more  for  the  present.  I  must  now  con- 
clude. "LILY." 

By  return  of  post,  she  received  "a  thousand  kisses  on 
her  rosy  cheeks,  on  her  fair  tresses,  everywhere,"  kisses 
without  end. 

"He's  mad,"  thought  Lily. 

But  she  was  greatly  flattered  by  Trampy's  attentions. 
He  treated  her  as  a  woman,  not  as  a  child,  as  Pa  and  Ma 
went  out  of  their  way  to  do.  Her  life,  after  all,  would 
be  more  agreeable  if  she  was  Trampy's  wife ;  and  he 
was  delivering  the  attack  in  person,  since  his  return  from 
Lancashire,  where  he  had  traveled  about  with  his  prop- 
erty red-hot  stove.  He  overwhelmed  her  with  bouquets, 
even  as  a  general  bombards  a  bastion  before  the  final  as- 
sault, and  he  managed  to  meet  her  now.  He  dazzled  Lily 
with  his  big  gold  watch-chain  and  the  diamond  in  his  tie. 
When  he  was  able  to  whisper  a  word  to  her,  it  was  al- 


CURTAIN    RISES  99 

ways  the  same  thing — "Motor-cars!  Paris  gowns!  Jew- 
els !  Flowers !" — until  Lily  thought  she  saw  all  the  shop- 
windows  in  Regent  Street  poured  out  at  her  feet. 

Jimmy  made  but  a  sorry  lover,  compared  with  Trampy. 
He  never  promised  anything,  silk  dresses,  diamonds  or 
jewels.  "The  husband  at  work,  the  wife  at  home."  Gee, 
there  were  no  ostrich-feathers  in  that!  But  he  adored 
her  all  the  same,  as  Lily  was  well  able  to  see ;  and  she  had 
many  occasions  to  talk  to  both  of  them.  Not  that  Lily 
was  less  closely  watched.  She  never  went  out  alone,  but  it 
was  not  always  Ma  who  was  at  her  heels:  it  was  some- 
times Glass-Eye.  With  faithful  Glass-Eye,  things  took 
their  own  course  and  the  interviews  with  Trampy  became 
easy.  As  for  Jimmy,  he  saw  her  every  day  at  practice 
and  he  took  that  opportunity  to  tell  her  of  his  ideas,  his 
plans  for  the  future. 

"I  shall  succeed,  you  will  see,  Lily,"  he  said.  "I  shall 
do  something  some  day.  I'm  a  bit  of  a  mechanic,  a  bit 
of  an  electrician,  that  is  to  say,  a  bit  of  a  wizard.  Others 
have  started  lower  down  and  climbed  very  high." 

"Yes,"  replied  Lily,  "I  know.  It's  like  Pa.  He  wasn't 
much  before  he  got  me  into  shape ;  and  look  at  him  now !" 

This  was  said  with  an  artless  candor  that  enraptured 
Jimmy. 

"What  a  dear  little  girlie  you  are!"  he  said.  "What 
an  adorable  kid !" 

"That's  right,"  retorted  Lily.  "Why  not  a  baby,  while 
you're  about  it,  a  school-girl  in  the  biking-class  and  so 
on?  Some  people  treat  me  as  a  woman,  Jimmy,  and  pro- 
pose to  marry  me !" 

"What's  that?" 

"What  I  say,  Jimmy." 

"And  this  man  making  up  to  you  is  worthy  of  you,  I 


100  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

suppose?  And  do  you  love  him?"  asked  Jimmy,  greatly 
upset. 

"Pooh  !"  said  Lily.    "I'm  not  quite  sure." 

"But  you  wouldn't  marry  him  unless  you  loved  him?" 

"I  should  marry  him  to  change  my  life." 

"A  change,  Lily,"  said  Jimmy,  with  feeling,  "is  not 
always  a  change  for  the  better !  And  your  life  is  a  little 
pleasanter  now,  you  told  me  so  yourself.  Your  mother 
is  sorry.  You're  getting  pocket-money;  ten  shillings  a 
week,  eh?  Why,  Lily,  that's  splendid!" 

"Well ;  and'  I  earn  it,  I  suppose,"  said  Lily.  "And  Ma 
isn't  a  bit  sorry.  Pa  said  he  wouldn't  have  it,  that's  all. 
They  were  afraid  of  my  running  away  if  it  went  on.  I 
am  no  longer  a  child !" 

"No,"  said  Jimmy,  taking  her  hands,  "an  adorable  girl ; 
that's  what  you  are.  Oh,  a  man  whom  you  would  love 
should  do  great  things !  He  would  love  you  with  all  his 
heart!  And  your  life  would  be  different  then!  No,  you 
would  not  be  a  performing  dog,  as  you  call  it ;  you  would 
be  a  darling  little  wife.  It's  all  very  well  to  rove  about 
the  world,  from  theater  to  theater,  riding  round  and 
round  on  your  bike.  .  .  ." 

"I  adore  the  stage,  for  all  that !"  interrupted  Lily. 

"But  that  can't  go  on  for  ever,"  continued  Jimmy. 
"You're  entitled  to  have  a  nicer  life :  a  home  of  your  own, 
Lily ;  you  have  the  making  of  a  lady  in  you,  if  you  were 
taught.  In  a  year  or  two,  Lily,  you  would  be  the  equal  of 
any  lady  in  the  land." 

"Learning,  more  learning,  always  learning!  I've  had 
enough  of  it  in  my  life !"  muttered  Lily,  affected,  never- 
theless, by  Jimmy's  intense  excitement,  and  lowering  her 
eyes  under  his  glance. 

"Why,  yes,  Lily,  always  learning,  that's  life!"  said 


CURTAIN    RISES  101 

Jimmy.  "But  the  other  chap,  of  course,  promises  you 
the  earth!  Some  millionaire,  I  suppose:  an  admirer  in 
the  front  boxes  ?" 

"He's  an  artiste,"  said  Lily. 

"Why,"  said  Jimmy,  stepping  back,  without  letting  go 
of  her.  "But,  no,  it's  impossible;  you're  not  thinking  of 
Trampy !" 

"Why  not?"  said  Lily  angrily,  trying  to  release  her- 
self from  Jimmy's  passionate  grasp. 

"Why,  because  .  .  .  because  he's  a  drunkard 
.  .  .  a  ...  The  other  day  I  saw  him  at  the  bar 
of  the  Crown,  as  I  was  passing.  He  was  blind-drunk." 

"What's  the  good  of  talking?"  said  Lily.  "He's  miser- 
able. He  worships  me.  He  drinks  to  forget.  He  told 
me  so  himself !" 

"But  they  say  he's  married,"  said  Jimmy.  "Why  ..." 

"It's  mean  and  jealous  of  you  to  say  that,"  said  Lily, 
suddenly  withdrawing  her  hands.  "You  deserve  a  smack- 
ing! How  can  he  be  married,  when  he  wants  to  marry 
me?" 

And  with  that  she  left  him  and  went  up  to  the  dressing- 
room. 

Jimmy  was  heartbroken. 

"It's  a  joke  of  Lily's  .  .  .  as  in  my  shop,  some 
months  ago,  when  she  pretended  to  have  a  sweetheart, 
though  she  hadn't !" 

But,  argue  as  he  would,  Jimmy  thought  with  terror  of 
Trampy's  habits  of  conquest,  of  his  reputation  in  the  pro- 
fession as  a  Don  Juan.  He  bitterly  regretted  waiting  so 
long  to  speak  to  Lily.  He  had  thought  that  he  was  pleas- 
ing her  by  keeping  in  the  background,  for  fear  of  causing 
her  annoyance  at  home :  was  his  sole  offense  now  that  of 
coming  too  late  ? 


102  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Oh,  if  he  had  only  had  evidence  to  hand!  But 
Trampy's  marriage  was  one  of  those  vague  rumors.  One 
could  say  nothing  for  certain.  However,  the  danger,  no 
doubt,  was  not  yet  imminent.  And  Jimmy  had  a  friend 
who  was  doing  America  in  the  theaters  of  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Trust:  he  resolved  to  write  to  him;  the 
friend  would  receive  his  letter  at  the  Majestic,  Hous- 
ton, Texas,  or  at  the  Denver  Orpheum.  The  thing  had 
happened  over  there;  they  would  probably  remember  it 
in  the  theaters  he  passed  through ;  he  could  make  in- 
quiries, perhaps  even  obtain  proofs.  That  exquisite  Lily, 
that  masterpiece  of  grace :  what  a  darling  wife  she  would 
make !  And  all  for  Trampy !  Jimmy  was  determined  to 
do  everything  to  prevent  it. 

He  did  not  despair  of  supplying  Lily,  before  long,  with 
the  proof  that  Trampy  was  married;  he  would  give  the 
name,  the  date;  he  would  compel  Trampy  to  admit  it. 
But  he  was  not  sure  enough  yet  to  accuse  him  openly : 
Lily  would  have  seen  nothing  in  it  but  a  ridiculous  jeal- 
ousy and  would  never  have  forgiven  him. 

Then  Jimmy  was  worried :  people  came  to  him  for  this, 
for  that,  for  the  thousand  details  of  the  stage. 

Lily,  on  her  side,  left  the  theater.  That  day,  she  was 
accompanied  by  Maud,  who  fixed  her  with  her  glass  eye, 
while  the  other  was  engaged  in  watching  the  flies.  Of 
course,  Trampy  was  prowling  round  the  theater  to  see  her 
part  of  the  way  home ;  for  he,  too,  had  decided  to  carry 
things  with  a  high  hand.  And  he  set  to  work  at  a  quicker 
pace  than  ever. 

He  had  none  of  Jimmy's  scruples ;  he  was  not  afraid  of 
exaggerating:  far  from  it.  Lily  always  left  him  under 
the  impression  of  a  glimpse  of  paradise.  This  time,  how- 
ever, she  failed  to  smile  when  Trampy  vowed  that  she 


CURTAIN    RISES  103 

was  "the  sweetest  little  thing  that  one  could  lay  eyes  on, 
by  Jove!"  For  a  long  time,  but  especially  since  that 
morning,  she  had  been  burning  to  put  a  question  to  him. 
Possibly  she  had  no  intention  of  marrying  him,  but  she 
wouldn't  allow  him  to  make  a  fool  of  her ;  and  she  inter- 
rupted him  in  his  compliments  to  ask  if  what  they  said 
was  true. 

"Who  says  so  ?  It's  a  lie !"  Trampy  hastened  to  answer. 

"I  mean  your  marriage,"  replied  Lily. 

"I  thought  as  much,"  said  Trampy. 

"Tell  me  the  truth,"  persisted  Lily  innocently,  looking 
him  straight  in  the  eyes. 

"If  I  was  married,  Lily,  would  I  want  to  marry  you  ?" 

"Of  course  not,"  said  Lily,  already  shaken. 

"Who's  been  talking  to  you  about  that  ?"  asked  Trampy. 
"Your  Pa,  eh?  And  Jimmy:  I'll  bet  that  Jimmy  .  .  .  ?" 

"Jimmy  too." 

"If  I  don't  box  that  fellow's  ears!"  shouted  Trampy. 
"Can't  you  see  that  he's  jealous?  Why?  He  didn't  even 
give  you  my  bouquets!  He  handed  them  to  your  Ma! 
And  so  I've  been  married,  eh  ?  Whereabouts  ?  In  Amer- 
ica, I'll  wager?" 

"Yes,  somewhere  on  the  Western  Tour." 

"Of  course,"  said  Trampy.  "That's  what  I've  heard 
myself.  Still,  it  seems  to  me  that,  if  I  had  a  wife,  I 
ought  to  be  the  first  to  know  it ;  don't  you  think  so,  Lily  ?" 

This  was  proof  positive.  Lily  could  find  nothing  to 
answer. 

"Come  and  have  a  drink,  Lily  ?" 

"They're  waiting  for  me  at  home,"  said  Lily. 

Trampy  went  into  the  bar  alone,  in  a  desperate  state  of 
love  which  made  him  call  for  a  port  and  another,  by 
Jove !  Then  he  sat  down  at  a  table  in  a  corner,  lit  a  cigar 


104.  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

and  examine'd  his  glass,  as  though  truth  lay  at  the  bottom. 
For  he  could  not  tell  for  certain.  Was  he  married  or  was 
he  not?  That's  what  he  himself  would  like  to  know! 
According  to  him,  upon  his  soul  and  conscience,  he  was 
not  a  married  man ;  he  did  himself  that  justice.  Oppor- 
tunities, certainly,  had  not  been  wanting  .  .  .  with 
all  the  girls  he  had  known  .  .  .  enough  to  fill  a 
dozen  beauty-shows.  Sometimes  even  he  had  had  a  nar- 
row escape,  as  in  that  damned  town  in  the  West,  in  one 
of  those  states  where  you  can't  so  much  as  take  a  girl  to 
supper  without  finding  yourself  married  to  her  in  the 
morning,  all  for  entering  yourself  in  the  hotel  book  as 
"Mr.  and  Mrs.  Trampy,"  in  other  words,  as  man  and 
wife.  And  yet  he  couldn't  ask  the  girl  who  adored  him 
to  sleep  on  the  mat!  Yes,  a  poor  girl  who  had  found 
glowing  words  in  which  to  tell  him  her  love,  one  night 
in  Mexico,  words  which  had  set  Trampy  quivering  with 
longing  compassion :  was  he  to  be  reproached  with  that  ? 
He  had  made  her  happy,  after  all ;  and,  on  the  whole, 
this  lark  was  one  of  his  pleasantest  memories ;  it  hadn't 
lasted  too  long:  a  matter  of  a  few  weeks  at  most.  He 
had  left  Mexico,  taking  the  girl  with  him,  and  played 
Trampy  Wheel-Pad  in  the  Western  States,  with  any 
amount  of  success,  by  Jove !  Encores,  packets  of  tobacco, 
a  new  suit  of  clothes !  And,  by  way  of  entr'acte,  the  girl 
—"Tramp  Wheel-Pad's  Jumping  Flea,"  as  she  was  called 
— turned  somersaults  and  flip-flaps.  But  she  would  have 
killed  him,  this  dark  girl  with  great  dark  eyes, — this 
girl  with  a  boy's  figure,  all  muscle  and  sinew,  keeping 
him  awake  all  night  and  talking  of  nothing  but  smack- 
ings, as  though  she  had  never  learned  anything  else. 
And  so  much  in  love  that  she  would  bite  and  scratch: 
a  very  tigress.  Any  one  but  himself  would  have  wearied 
of  it.  And  then,  one  fine  morning,  for  coupling  their 


CURTAIN    RISES  105 

names  in  the  visitors'  book,  they  found  themselves  mar- 
ried, in  the  name  of  the  law !  And  that  was  what  people 
called  a  marriage!  So  little  married  were  they,  ac- 
cording to  him,  that  he  had  given  her  the  slip  then  and 
there,  leaving  her  all  the  money  he  possessed,  however: 
he  was  not  the  man  to  look  at  fifteen  dollars,  when  honor 
demanded  it.  Trampy  had  had  more  stories  of  this  kind 
in  his  life;  they  left  as  much  impression  on  his  mind  as 
the  recollection  of  a  "schooner"  swallowed  at  a  bar  on  a 
summer  night. 

It  was  dishonest,  he  considered,  to  pretend  that  he  was 
married.  Not  that  he  was  perfect:  far  from  it!  He  did 
not  set  up  as  a  model.  He  had  had  scandals  in  his  life : 
he  admitted  it  humbly;  and,  if  some  jealous  person, 
some  Jimmy,  for  instance,  wanted  to  do  him  harm,  all  he 
had  to  do  was  to  dig  in  the  heap,  instead  of  hawking 
round  that  story  of  an  imaginary  marriage. 

His  differences  with  Poland,  the  Parisienne,  for  in- 
stance :  a  regular  Mrs.  Potiphar,  that  one.  He  had  found 
it  a  hard  job  to  get  away  from  her.  And  ever  and  ever 
so  many  others !  He  couldn't  remember.  People  were  al- 
ways talking  ill  of  him.  There  was  more  than  that,  how- 
ever :  he,  too,  was  capable  of  manly  ambition  ;  he,  too,  had 
taken  a  breakneck  risk.  He  had  perfected  and  patented 
at  Washington  an  invention  of  which  he  had  seen  a 
drawing,  by  accident,  in  a  scientific  journal — Engineer- 
ing, or  another — a  purely  theoretical  invention.  The  in- 
ventor himself,  a  young  London  electrician,  declared  it 
to  be  unrealizable.  Well,  he,  Trampy — Poland  had 
helped  him  with  her  purse ;  she  was  very  nice  about  it — 
he,  Trampy,  had  had  the  thing  made.  He  had  deposited 
the  models  at  the  Patent  Office;  and  the  apparatus  itself 
was  now  in  a  London  storage.  He  would  get  it  out,  some 
day,  and  show  them  all  what  he  was  capable  of. 


106  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Now  he  was  wrong,  perhaps,  in  abandoning  Poland, 
after  accepting  her  services;  but,  after  all,  those  were 
matters  which  concerned  nobody  but  himself.  It  was  not 
fair  play  to  tell  Lily  about  them :  she,  he  felt,  would  al- 
ways be  the  girl  of  his  heart,  the  thirty-seventh  and  last, 
and  it  would  take  a  better  man  than  Jimmy  to  snatch  her 
from  him ! 

Already,  it  was  much  to  have  pacified  Lily  on  that  in- 
cident of  the  marriage :  Lily  believed  him.  One  thing, 
however,  disquieted  Trampy :  bigamy,  all  the  same,  meant 
doing  time.  Now,  if  some  jealous  person  produced  the 
proof  of  that  marriage,  contracted  under  the  Western 
law  .  .  .  suppose  it  were  valid  .  .  .  really  valid? 
H'm !  Was  he  going  to  lose  Lily  for  that  ?  And  his  liberty 
into  the  bargain  ?  That  Lily  who  was  worth  her  weight  in 
gold,  love  and  fortune  in  one ! 

Trampy  resolved  to  broach  this  delicate  subject : 

"Suppose  I  was  married,"  he  hinted,  one  day,  "that 
wouldn't  matter.  Couldn't  we  ...  live  together  .  .  . 
eh?" 

"I  like  your  style!"  said  Lily,  feeling  slightly  indig- 
nant at  such  a  proposal.  "What  do  you  take  me  for?" 

"I  was  only  joking,"  Trampy  hastened  to  say.  "If 
you  want  to  be  married,  I'm  quite  agreeable." 

"I  insist  upon  it !" 

"So  then  you  prefer  to  take  strangers  into  our  confi- 
dence ?" 

"What  strangers  ?"  asked  Lily,  in  surprise. 

"Why,  the  quill-drivers  at  Somerset  House  and  those 
damned  fire-escapes." 

Lily  had  enough  religion  to  know  that  the  fire-escape 
was  the  clergyman : 

"As  for  that,"  she  said,  "we  shall  see  later ;  but  I  want 


CURTAIN    RISES  107 

the  registrar's  office.  If  I'm  to  be  your  little  wife,  I  want 
to  be  so  for  good  and  all :  marriage  or  nothing !" 

"I  shall  be  delighted,  Lily !" 

"And  I'm  determined !" 

Lily  was  the  more  bent  upon  it,  because  marriage  made 
her  free:  that  was  the  essential  point.  If  she  were  not 
married,  her  parents  could  make  her  come  back,  she 
thought  .  .  .  keep  her  with  them  .  .  .  gee !  It  gave 
her  cold  shivers  down  the  back !  Once  married,  she  was 
protected  by  law ;  Pa  and  Ma  had  nothing  to  say ;  and  so 
she  was  very  keen  upon  marriage. 

"What  a  dear  little  wife  she'll  make !"  thought  Trampy. 
"And  how  she  loves  me !" 

That,  however,  did  not  advance  matters.  It  was  all 
very  well  for  him  to  put  his  arm  round  her  waist,  to  talk 
softly  to  her,  to  whisper  those  words  which  had  already 
won  him  so  many  conquests : — one  day,  even,  he  had  kissed 
her  on  the  lips, — Lily  thought  that  very  nice;  it  was  all 
very  well  for  him  to  cut  a  dash  at  the  bar,  to  stand  her  a 
claret  and  a  biscuit ;  it  was  all  very  well  for  him  to  sing 
his  love-litany :  all  this  did  not  help  him ;  at  the  rate  at 
which  he  was  going,  he  wouldn't  get  anywhere  in  six 
months. 

Lily,  between  those  two  jossers,  amused  herself  im- 
mensely. How  lucky  she  was!  Two  men,  at  her  age! 
They  irritated  her,  sometimes;  when  they  went  too  far 
— Trampy,  especially,  who  got  excited  at  the  game — 
anyhow,  it  was  a  homage  paid  to  her  beauty.  Between 
that  and  going  away  with  him  there  was  all  the  differ- 
ence in  the  world !  To  leave  home  was  quite  another 
matter.  Why,  goodness,  if  things  went  on  as  they  were, 
she  could  do  without  marriage  at  all ! 


CHAPTER  VII 

"Lily,  come  down !"  Pa's  voice  thundered  from  below. 

Lily  was  out  of  bed  in  a  bound.  She  could  hardly  tie 
her  skirt-strings  for  trembling.  Why  was  Pa  in  such  a 
rage? 

The  moment  Lily  entered  her  parents'  room,  she  real- 
ized what  it  was.  Pa  was  holding  a  letter  in  his  hand  and 
scowling  at  her. 

"These  are  nice  stories  I  hear !"  he  cried.  "You  let  men 
kiss  you?  You've  got  a  love  affair?  Come,  Lily,  is  this 
true?" 

"It's  Jimmy's  doing,"  thought  feily.  "The  mean  cur! 
He's  given  me  away !" 

Pa  went  on  hotly : 

"And  you're  going  to  marry,  are  you?  To  marry 
Trampy  ?  Here,  read  that !" 

Lily  felt  hopeless.  She  took  the  letter,  but  did  not  at- 
tempt to  read  it.  White  with  fear,  could  she  have  sprung 
through  the  window  and  fled,  she  would  have  done  so. 

"Well,"  Pa  went  on  apace,  growing  more  and  more  ex- 
cited, "is  all  this  true  ?  All  that  they  tell  me :  about  your 
receiving  letters,  post-cards,  jewelry  .  .  .  and  that 
ring!  I've  seen  it!  You're  going  to  marry  Trampy,  are 
you?  Oh,  the  man  who  writes  to  me  knows  all  about  it, 
saw  you  with  him  at  the  corner  of  Oxford  Street  and 
Newman  Street.  Is  that  true,  miss  ?  What  did  you  have 
to  tell  him,  pray ?  Speak  out!" 

Lily,  terror-stricken,  could  only  droop  Her  Head. 
1 08 


109 

"It's  true  then  that  you  want  to  get  married,  you  bag- 
gage !" 

"Pa!"  cried  Lily. 

But  he,  with  an  "Ah!"  of  rage,  sprang  upon  her, 
clutched  her  mass  of  hair,  banged  her  head  against  the 
wall: 

"On  your  knees !    Say,  'I — beg — your — par — don — '  " 

And,  Bang !  Bang !  Bang !  The  phrase  was  punctuated 
with  thumps. 

"Oh,  Clifton,"  implored  Ma,  "stop !    Not  so  hard !" 

"Begj — par — don!  Beg — par — don!"  continued  Pa, 
without  relenting. 

Lily  was  half-stunned,  the  world  throbbed  before  her 
eyes,  and,  delirious  with  wrath,  she  hissed : 

"Never !" 

"But  I  say,  I  say  you  shall  not  marry  him !  I'll  kill  you 
first!" 

"Yes,  I  will  marry  him,  yes,  yes,  I  will  marry  him! 
kill  me,  if  you  like!  God  is  my  witness  that  I  had  not 
thought  of  getting  married,  but,  as  you  say  so,  I  will !" 

His  fist  closed  her  mouth.  She  clasped  her  arms  about 
her  head,  to  protect  herself  as  best  she  could,  but  soon 
sank  to  the  floor,  fainting.  .  .  . 

For  three  days  she  was  in  bed,  broken,  dazed — then, 
no  sooner  on  her  feet,  than  off  to  the  theater,  guarded 
by  Pa  and  Ma.  If  they  could,  they  would  have  pad- 
locked a  chain  to  her  ankle  and  a  collar  about  her  neck. 
Ma  chilled  Lily  with  her  scornful  pity,  or  racked  her  with 
repeated  insults: 

"A  disgrace  to  the  family !    You'll  be  the  death  of  us !" 

She  would  shower  cuffs  upon  Lily,  throw  books  at 
her  head,  or  whatever  came  readiest  to  hand.  Lily  hid 
the  books,  the  umbrellas,  shrank  into  corners,  longing  to 


110  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

cfy;  but  the  tears  refused  to  come.  She  was  too  angry. 
And,  with  head  down,  but  eyes  alert,  she  crouched  like  a 
dog  rebelling-  under  blows,  with  lips  drawn  back  above 
her  teeth,  ready  to  bite. 

"I'm  going  out,  or  I'll  kill  her!"  growled  Pa,  slamming 
the  door  behind  him. 

Pa  was  thoroughly  upset :  for  Lily  to  leave  him !  Just 
when  Hauptmann  was  starting  a  fifth  troupe  ;  when  Paw- 
nee was  drawing  full  houses  with  his  three  stars ;  when 
competition  was  increasing  and  threatening :  it  meant  dis- 
aster, certain  ruin,  the  disbanding  of  his  troupe,  his  con- 
tracts canceled.  He  seethed  with  indignation ;  or  else,  in 
despair,  felt  like  taking  Lily  in  his  arms,  seating  her  on 
his  knee,  begging  her  to  tell  him  that  it  was  all  a  night- 
mare, that  she  would  never  marry,  never  marry  that 
Trampy:  his  good  little  Lily  .  .  .  whom  her  Pa 
would  cover  with  diamonds !  She  should  have  all  she 
wished,  and  everything,  if  only  she  would  assure  him  that 
it  was  not  true  that  Trampy,  that  ungrateful  cur,  whom 
he,  Pa,  had  picked  out  of  the  gutter,  was  going  to  steal 
his  Lily!  That  damned  Jim  Crow!  Pa,  in  his  fury, 
bought  a  revolver  to  scatter  the  footy  rotter's  brains  with, 
but  Trampy  received  the  tip  from  Tom  and  vanished, 
hey,  presto,  leaving  no  trace,  allowing  no  sign  of  himself 
to  crop  up  anywhere.  Pa's  rage  was  vented  on  his 
daughter. 

Happily  for  her,  Lily  now  was  a  model  of  conduct. 
She  felt  thoroughly  calm.  Peace  seemed  to  reign  in  the 
house.  Lily  was  such  a  gentle  little  thing !  One  day — the 
very  day  on  which  Tom  passed  her  a  note  from  Trampy 
and  she  made  a  package  of  her  new  dress  and  of  her 
photographs,  and  souvenirs — that  evening,  as  she  kissed 
her  father  and  mother,  tears  came  to  her  eyes.  Then, 


CURTAIN    RISES  111 

instead  of  going  to  the  kitchen,  she  fetched  her  bundle, 
stealthily  opened  the  street-door  and  ran  to  the  corner, 
where  Trampy  was  waiting  in  a  hansom,  and  hi,  off  for 
the  holidays,  the  champagne,  the  long-dreamed-of  Para- 
dise! 


PLAYING  'EM  IN 


They  were  seated  on  the  basket  trunk  marked,  "Trampy 
Wheel-Pad,"  in  big  black  letters.  The  steamer  had  left 
Harwich  and  was  making  for  Holland.  The  English 
coast  was  disappearing  in  the  mist.  On  the  deck,  a  heap 
of  luggage  and  parcels  made  a  sort  of  nest  for  them. 
Trampy,  with  his  dear  little  wife  by  his  side,  was  think- 
ing of  the  future  ...  so  many  things  which  he  had 
flashed  before  Lily's  eyes  and  which  he  could  not  give 
her  .  .  .  not  directly,  at  least  .  .  .  but,  pooh, 
she'd  get  used  to  it  by  degrees.  The  great  thing,  to 
Trampy,  was  that  he  had  his  Lily!  He  was  going  to 
stuff  himself  to  the  throat  with  love  and,  first  of  all,  to 
seek  a  shelter  for  his  sweet  wife  and  himself.  England 
was  no  place  for  them.  Pa  was  prowling  round  and 
Jimmy,  too.  Once  their  anger  was  over  and  they  found 
themselves  face  to  face  with  the  irreparable,  everything 
would  calm  down ;  meantime,  the  wisest  thing  for  Trampy 
and  Lily  was  to  be  prudent  and  run  away  as  fast  as  they 
could.  Trampy  had  his  plan,  he  had  seen  the  agents: 
Holland  and  Belgium  first;  then  a  performance  at  Lud- 
wig's  Concert  House,  in  Hamburg,  and  a  brilliant  first 
appearance  before  a  hall  filled  with  managers.  Already 
he  saw  himself  in  the  famous  little  room  of  the  Cafe 
Griiber,  where  so  many  contracts  were  signed  during 

112 


PLAYING    'EM    IN  113 

the  few  days  that  the  hearing-season  lasted,  and  then  he 
would  have  the  whole  continent,  from  St.  Petersburg  to 
Lisbon,  make  heaps  of  money,  treat  Lily  like  the  little 
peach  she  was  and  cover  her  with  diamonds,  by  Jove! 
Trampy,  meanwhile,  was  none  too  easy  in  his  mind: 
funds  were  low;  the  two  pounds  paid  at  the  registrar's 
office  had  lightened  his  purse  still  more.  Fortunately, 
the  fire-escape  had  not  had  his  seven-and-six-pence :  that 
was  so  much  saved. 

"A  poor  consolation,"  thought  Trampy.  "The  price  of 
a  dog-license." 

But  he  was  gay,  nevertheless,  in  his  wife's  company. 
He  forgot  his  thirty-six  girls.  He  told  Lily  stories, 
made  her  squirm  with  laughter,  played  with  her,  dazzled 
her  with  the  champagne  suppers  .  .  .  which  they 
would  have  later  on.  Or  else,  like  the  consummate  mum- 
mer that  he  was,  he  put  on  the  gloomy  countenance  of  a 
man  about  to  reveal  the  secret  of  his  heart : 

"I'm  a  wretch,"  he  muttered,  while  Lily,  in  her  inno- 
cence— Lily,  who  had  been  living  on  tenter-hooks  since 
her  flight  from  home  a  few  days  before — turned  her 
frightened  eyes  upon  him.  "A  miserable  wretch  .  .  . 
married.  Yes,  it's  true ;  I'm  married,  Lily." 

"It's  true  what  they  said  ?    You're  married  ?" 

"Yes,  I  am." 

"Oh,  I  knew  it!"  said  Lily,  in  despair.  "But  then 
.  .  .  if  you  are  .  .  .  I'm  not !" 

"You  silly  little  thing!"  said  Trampy,  kissing  her  and 
taking  her  on  his  knee.  "Yes,  I'm  married ;  yes ;  and  no 
one  shall  separate  us.  Haven't  I  the  prettiest  little  wife — 
here,  on  my  knee — my  little  Lily  ?" 

"Oh,  how  you  frightened  me!"  said  Lily,  nestling 
against  him.  "OH,  don't  ever  let  us  part !" 


114.  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

With  a  wife  like  that,  said  Trampy  to  himself,  a  little 
discomfort  more  or  less  made  no  difference.  As  long  as 
she  had  her  dear  husband,  she  would  be  happy.  She 
would  have  eyes  for  nothing  but  him  and  would  not  care 
a  fig  for  all  the  rest. 

Now  she  loved  him:  there  was  no  doubt  about  that. 
She  had  left  everything  for  him!  He  could  even  have 
had  her  without  marriage,  by  Jove,  and  saved  two 
pounds,  if  he  had  insisted !  So  he  thought,  at  least,  and 
he  put  a  conquering  arm  round  Lily's  waist,  while  she, 
with  her  head  on  his  shoulder,  dreamed  and  dreamed,  her 
eyes  fixed  upon  the  horizon.  She  was  married !  She  had 
dared!  She  would  be,  at  last,  the  little  lady  she  had 
always  been  by  instinct !  And  Lily  went  on  building  her 
castles  in  Spain  until,  after  the  smooth  crossing,  arriving 
at  the  Hook  of  Holland,  she  would  not  have  been  sur- 
prised to  find  her  own  motor-car  and  servants  waiting 
for  her  on  the  quay.  But  no,  she  had  to  carry  her  bag 
herself,  under  the  fine  drizzle,  upon  the  slippery  pave- 
ment, to  the  train  .  .  .  and  third-class  to  Rotterdam. 
It  was  all  very  well  for  Trampy  to  adopt  a  triumphant 
air,  but  Lily  was  greatly  vexed  at  the  idea  of  going  with 
her  husband  to  a  little  hotel  frequented  by  artistes,  bill- 
toppers  though  they  were.  She  would  have  liked  some- 
thing different. 

Trampy  observed  that,  with  her  Pa     ... 

"With  Pa,"  said  Lily,  "it  was  not  the  same  thing  .  .  . 
and  I'm  not  with  Pa  now." 

Trampy  showed  himself  accommodating.  That  even- 
ing, Lily  had  the  proud  satisfaction  of  walking  into  a 
smart  hotel,  with  waiters  in  the  hall,  as  at  the  Horse 
Shoe.  She  carried  her  head  high,  conscious  of  being 
looked  at.  She  would  have  liked  always  to  shine  like  that 


PLAYING    'EM    IN  115 

— to  sit  down  to  meals  amid  the  rustling  of  silk  dresses 
.  .  .  but  she  felt  uneasy  in  her  modest  attire.  Trampy 
would  be  only  too  pleased  to  give  her  a  new  outfit, 
later  on,  yes;  but  as  he  explained  to  Lily,  he  had  had 
so  many  expenses  recently,  wouldn't  it  be  better  to  take 
rooms  somewhere,  in  a  sort  of  place  like  Lisle  Street,  or 
St.  Pauli,  at  Hamburg?  Lily  yielded  to  these  arguments, 
she  had  to ;  but  it  was  a  bitter  grief  for  her  to  leave  that 
fine  hotel,  where  everybody  saw  her  as  a  lady  .  .  . 
perhaps  because  of  her  big  hat,  on  which  a  bird,  flat- 
spread,  opened  wide  its  wings  and  held  in  its  beak  a 
diamond  the  size  of  an  egg. 

And,  thenceforth,  the  mean  life  returned:  Lily  re- 
lapsed among  the  potatoes  and  the  wash-hand-basin  sal- 
ads. There  were  occasional  revolts,  tart  words,  sudden 
disputes,  which,  at  times,  wrinkled  her  forehead  with 
anger.  .  .  . 

Nevertheless,  she  had  her  good  moments :  she  enjoyed 
the  sensation  of  being  a  lady  who  does  no  work,  of  wear- 
ing gloves  and  a  big  hat  and  of  looking  at  the  time  on  her 
fine  gold  watch  while  her  husband  is  on  the  stage.  It 
seemed  pleasant  to  her  no  longer  to  appear  before  the  au- 
dience doing  her  performing-dog  tricks,  with  Pa  scrutin- 
izing her  from  the  wings.  It  was  her  turn  now  to  make 
one  of  the  small  nation :  pas,  mas,  profs,  bosses,  brothers, 
sisters,  sons,  daughters,  all  watching  their  bread-winners 
on  the  boards.  She  mingled  with  them,  or  else  sat  down 
prettily  in  a  corner,  talked  to  the  artistes :  other  Martellos, 
other  Nunkies;  new  faces  every  week,  according  to  the 
theaters  they  were  at :  owners  of  troupes ;  sketch  comedi- 
ans, serio-comics ;  dancers  of  the  Roofer  class ;  laced-up, 
glittering  "Mdlles. ;"  or  else,  from  time  to  time,  some 
josser,  a  friend  of  the  manager's  or  an  agent,  prowling 


116  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

around  among  the  flesh-colored  tights.  Lily  had  seen  all 
this  a  hundred  times,  a  thousand  times  before,  when  she 
was  with  her  parents;  and  the  mere  thought  of  Ma 
made  her  talk  nicely,  from  bravado,  to  all  of  them,  though 
she  was  married  now.  Lily  bore  Pa  no  malice,  in  spite 
of  the  buckled  belt.  Pa  was  a  man,  with  hair  on  his 
chest  and  harsh  like  all  of  them  .  .  .  no,  not  all 
.  .  .  and  not  so  bad,  perhaps  .  .  .  not  always 
.  .  .  no;  however,  a  man  .  .  .  But  her  Ma,  a 
lady,  ought  to  have  stood  up  for  her!  If  Ma  could  see 
her  now,  gee !  Lily  felt  a  lump  in  her  throat  at  the  notion. 
And  it  was  their  fault  that  she  had  run  away !  It  served 
them  right !  She  was  much  happier,  now,  when  she  was 
a  lady  in  her  turn.  Her  talent  and  her  beauty  received 
the  homage  due  to  them.  Lily  Clifton,  the  New  Zea- 
lander,  what  ho !  A  famous  name  in  the  profession ! 
She  was  one  of  those  whom  the  stage  people  point  out  to 
one  another: 

"Gee!"  she  sometimes  heard  a  voice  say  behind  her. 
"Fancy  owning  a  girl  like  that  and  not  having  the  sense 
to  keep  her !" 

Lily  was  flattered  to  the  core  at  hearing  her  parents 
blamed ;  she  felt  inclined  to  rise  and  say,  "  'K  you,"  with 
the  great  stage  bow:  her  right  hand  on  her  heart,  the 
other  raising  her  dress,  her  body  bent  forward  in  a  sweep- 
ing curtsey. 

She  took  part  in  the  conversations:  she  knew  a  little 
Spanish,  which  she  had  learned  in  Mexico,  and  a  little  Ger- 
man, which  she  had  picked  up  in  America  from  the  Three 
Graces ;  and  besides  they  all  jabbered  English,  they  were 
all  "families,"  "misses,"  "the's,"  with  impossible  accents, 
suggesting  some  of  those  cosmopolitan  towns  beyond  the 
"Rockies."  In  this  medley,  she  was  at  her  ease ;  but  she 


PLAYING    'EM    IN  117 

did  not  at  all  like  being  called  Lily,  now  that  she  was  a 
lady: 

"Call  me  Mrs.  Trampy,"  she  said. 

After  the  show,  she  would  sit  in  the  restaurant  with 
Trampy.  There,  amid  clouds  of  tobacco-smoke,  they  all 
supped  in  a  crowd.  There  were  separate  tables,  at  which 
silent  little  parties  gobbled  down  their  cutlets  and  com- 
pote in  ten  minutes  and  then  slipped  away  quietly.  Some- 
times, a  whole  band  of  girls  would  swoop  down  at  once, 
like  a  flight  of  thrushes,  or  exchange  funny  remarks 
over  other  people's  heads  and  blow  volleys  of  kisses  in 
every  direction. 

Trampy,  always  full  of  good  stuff,  amused  the  com- 
pany. He  lorded  it  in  the  select  corner,  the  corner  of 
the  stage-manager  and  the  pretty  girls.  After  supper,  he 
cocked  a  cigar  between  his  teeth  and  told  thick  stories 
in  the  midst  of  an  admiring  throng.  Lily  followed  with 
her  lips,  so  as  not  to  lose  a  word,  but,  when  the  final 
point  was  at  hand,  she  blushed  in  advance,  turned  away 
her  head,  as  though  tired  of  listening  without  under- 
standing, and  talked  to  her  neighbor,  like  a  lady  who 
respects  herself.  Qr,  sometimes,  it  was  more  than  she 
could  help  and  Lily  would  laugh  and  laugh : 

"Oh,  dear!  Oh,  my!" 

Then  they  would  "talk  shop"  among  pros,  tKey  passed 
one  another  the  papers :  Dcr  Artist,  The  Era,  Das  Pro- 
gram, they  discussed  engagements,  quoted  personal  anec- 
dotes :  the  Ma  who  made  her  star  go  down  to  the  kitchen, 
lest  the  landlady,  when  peeling  the  potatoes,  should  slip 
one  into  her  pocket.  Yes,  her  own  daughter,  a  star  who 
brought  her  in  a  hundred  marks  a  day ! 

"That's  just  like  it !"  thought  Lily. 

They  made  fun  of  that  prof  who  pinched  his  appren- 


118  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

tices  till  the  blood  came,  while  pretending  to  smile,  or 
clawed  them  like  a  monkey.  And  the  company  laughed 
and  laughed,  especially  when  Trampy  put  out  his  hand 
to  Lily  to  show  her  how  the  monkeys  .  .  .  Lily 
would  jump  back  and  the  crowd  roared  with  laughter. 
And  the  glasses  of  beer  and  Moselwein  accumulated  on 
the  table;  and  round  backs  were  bent  over  interminable 
games  of  cards.  .  .  . 

And  then,  gradually,  the  room  emptied ;  the  girls  went 
away  and  Lily,  waiting  for  her  husband,  sank  into  her 
chair  and  yawned  as  though  her  jaws  would  drop.  As 
they  left,  she  reproached  Trampy  for  his  coarseness : 
those  horrid  stories  which  made  her  blush  before  every- 
body's eyes.  Her  Pa  would  never  have  permitted  him- 
self .  .  .  She  was  not  accustomed  .  .  . 

"That  didn't  keep  you  from  splitting  your  sides  with 
laughter,"  said  Trampy. 

"What  an  idea!"  replied  Lily,  in  a  vexed  tone.  "Do 
you  think  I'm  going  to  play  the  goody  goody  'lalerper- 
looser'?  One  has  to  do  as  others  do  and  not  make  one's 
self  conspicuous." 

"Quite  right!"  said  Trampy. 

But  she  turned  crimson  with  rage  when  Trampy,  some 
other  night,  forgot  himself  so  far  as  to  monkey-claw  the 
girls.  There  were  short  violent  scenes  when  they  re- 
turned home,  chairs  upset,  angry  words.  Trampy  could 
not  understand  this  jealousy.  When  he  was  confronted 
with  these  outbursts,  he  was  greatly  surprised,  sought  for 
a  reason,  muttered  Jimmy's  name — that  was  his  sensitive 
point:  he  thought  of  it  in  spite  of  himself — ironically 
inquired  of  Lily  if  it  was  Jimmy  who  had  put  all  that 
nonsense  into  her  head.  Lily  was  sorry  to  see  the  con- 
versation take  this  turn.  She  flung  her  arms  round  her 


PLAYING    'EM   IN  119 

husband's  neck,  loved  him,  kissed  him  prettily,  the  great 
silly:  he  knew  better;  he  knew  she  never  thought  of 
Jimmy : 

"Kiss  me,  darling !  I  wish  you  would  make  me  happy/' 
said  Lily,  moved  to  pity  for  herself.  "I  want  to  be  a 
good  little  wife !" 

Thereupon  they  made  it  up.  Lily  did  not  feel,  with  her 
husband,  that  thrill  which  she  had  often  noticed  in  other 
women :  but  she  wanted  to  love  him,  stubbornly  pursued 
the  idea,  fagged  away  at  her  love  like  a  little  school-girl 
only  too  anxious  to  learn.  Trampy,  on  his  side,  could  be 
amiable  when  he  liked.  He  became  the  old  Trampy  again 
at  times  and  treated  Lily  like  a  little  playfellow.  They 
would  both  run  about  in  the  Biergarten,  in  the  morning, 
at  practice-time,  larking  like  children,  hiding  behind  the 
tables,  and  their  laughter  enlivened  the  empty  place,  still 
soiled  with  the  remnants  of  last  night's  meal  and  littered 
with  programs  and  cigar-stumps. 

And  time  passed  like  this  for  weeks  ...  it  was 
months  now  ...  an  existence  like  another,  with 
good  in  it  and  bad  .  .  .  and  monotonous  and  com- 
mon. .  .  . 

"I  should  have  been  better  off,  perhaps,  at  home,"  she 
thought.  "If  this  is  marriage,  it's  not  much." 

For,  she  saw  it  quite  clearly,  that  wasn't  love ;  Trampy 
didn't  understand  her.  A  "girl"  and  a  wife  were  all  the 
same  to  Trampy :  a  mere  pastime,  both  of  them.  He  spoke 
of  it  lightly,  through  the  smoke  of  his  cigar.  She  learned 
to  know  him,  heard  him  boast  of  his  prowess,  caught 
passing  words : 

"Girls,  girls,  my!" 

She  would  have  laughed,  she  would  even  have  felt 
flattered  at  being  chosen  among  so  many,  if  he  had  put 


120  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

an  end  to  his  conquests.  But  he  continued  to  prowl 
round  the  stage-girls,  as  he  used  to  do  before  he  was 
married.  If  even  he  had  shone  upon  the  stage,  she  would 
have  understood  that  he  had  got  "swelled  head,"  that  he 
was  yielding  to  temptation;  but  his  success  was  only 
middling.  He  had  not  made  a  hit  at  Hamburg.  The 
manager  of  Ludwig's  had  told  him  flatly  that  he  would 
do  well  to  practise  and  practise  a  great  deal.  Trampy 
posed  as  a  victim  of  jealousy,  spoke  of  showing  them 
— all  of  them,  if  once  he  put  his  back  to  it ! — a  new  turn, 
a  discovery  that  would  show  what  he  was  made  of! 
Meanwhile  he  had  a  new  idea,  as  a  sketch  comedian,  with 
a  make-up  of  his  own  invention,  the  face  painted  white 
on  one  side  and  red  on  the  other,  with  wrinkles  cunningly 
drawn — a  laughing  Johnny  and  .a  crying  Johnny,  two 
men  in  one.  He  pestered  Lily  with  his  plans,  made  her 
cut  out  dresses  for  him,  came  back  from  the  old-clothes 
shop  laden  with  uniforms  in  rags,  into  which  Lily  had 
to  put  patches.  And  shoes,  in  particular,  ran  in  his  head ; 
shoes  of  which  the  soles  and  the  uppers  yawned  like  lips ; 
talking  shoes,  which  said,  "Papa !"  and  "Mamma !"  This 
last  suggestion  made  Lily  laugh. 

Trampy  haunted  the  bazaars,  bought  children's  toys, 
took  the  stomachs  out  of  the  cardboard  dogs  and  rabbits 
to  make  his  quackers,  sought  about  for  his  right  note, 
pursued  inspiration  to  the  bottom  of  the  glasses. 

Lily  was  sometimes  driven  to  exasperation.  This 
tramp-cyclist,  this  sketch-comedian  was  making  her,  Lily 
Clifton,  patch  up  his  dresses!  And  her  husband  re- 
warded her  for  it  by  making  love  to  the  girls,  poor  idiot ! 
Oh,  if  Pa  and  Ma  had  not  been  so  harsh  with  her !  Lily 
always  harked  back  to  that,  stiffened  herself  with  the 
thought,  remembered  the  Marjutti  girl,  in  whom  love  of 


PLAYING    'EM    IN  121 

art  produced  wonders  and  whose  Pa  and  Ma  were  so 
gentle  and  kind. 

"They  should  have  treated  me  like  that,"  she  concluded, 
"and  I  should  have  been  at  home  still !" 

She  regretted  her  marriage.  And  there  were  some  who 
pitied  her  for  belonging  to  Trampy :  they  looked  upon  him 
as  not  worthy  of  her,  blamed  him  for  openly  carrying  on 
with  girls.  Others  asked,  as  though  it  did  not  matter, 
was  she  really  married  or  were  they  just  "living  to- 
gether ?" 

"What?  Am  I  married?  Is  that  what  they  think 
about  me  ?"  she  said,  a  little  annoyed.  "Of  course  I  am ! 
At  the  Kennington  registry-office !" 

And  yet  a  doubt  entered  her  mind  too.  Was  she  really 
married,  after  all?  Lily  did  not  know  much  about  it. 
Had  the  banns  been  published  ?  And  those  two  witnesses 
picked  up  in  the  street  ...  a  ceremony  that  took 
just  five  minutes  .  .  .  like  a  conjuring  trick.  If  it 
was  true  that  they  were  "living  together"  without  her 
knowing  it,  she  would  not  stay  with  him.  She  would 
go  back  home  at  once.  Marriage,  certainly,  was  never 
intended  for  her.  This  she  realized  now.  When  she 
thought  of  the  Gilson  girl,  mad  on  her  man,  and  of  others 
whom  she  sometimes  caught  in  the  dressing-rooms  and 
passages  eating  each  other  up  with  kisses,  she  was  at  a 
loss  to  understand.  How  could  they  make  so  much  fuss 
about  it? 

Poor  little  wife,  with  so  little  love  for  her  husband  and 
no  admiration  at  all !  As  an  artiste  she  thought  him 
lamentable.  Trampy,  who  had  seemed  so  great  to  her 
in  Mexico  .  .  .  why,  she  had  shot  miles  ahead  of 
him  since !  She  felt  that  he  was  getting  second-rate.  He 
himself  was  well  aware  of  it,  for  that  matter;  blamed 


122  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

everybody :  suspected  a  hoodoo  somewhere :  some  son  of 
a  gun  bringing  him  ill-luck.  And  he  was  always  casting 
about  for  an  easy  means  of  success  .  .  .  another 
new  plan  .  .  .  always  something  new  ...  a 
high-sounding  title:  "Rusty  Bike,"  an  old  jigger  which, 
at  each  turn  of  the  wheel,  would  grate  like  a  cart, 
"Crrrra !  Crrrra !"  and  bring  the  house  down  w ith  laugh- 
ter, while  Lily,  in  the  wings,  was  to  sound  an  accompani- 
ment on  a  grating  rattle : 

"Crrrra!  Crrrra!" 

"All  that  set-out  for  nothing!"  said  Lily  to  herself. 
"It  would  be  much  simpler  to  have  a  little  talent." 

She  felt  herself  overcome  with  contempt  for  her  hus- 
band :  what  a  sorry  bread-winner  he  made !  Why  take  a 
wife,  when  you  had  only  that  to  keep  her  on  ?  Lily  did  not 
know  whether  to  laugh  or  to  cry  when  she  saw  Trampy 
come  down  from  his  dressing-room,  proud  as  a  peacock, 
his  chest  swelling  at  the  sight  of  so  many  girls  at  a  time, 
a  treat  of  which  he  never  wearied.  He  was  magnificent, 
was  Trampy,  against  that  background  of  shoulders,  thighs 
and  calves:  in  his  element  as  a  fish  in  water.  Nor  did 
he  make  any  bones  about  smiling  to  them  or  monkey- 
clawing  them  as  they  came  off  the  stage.  The  presence 
of  his  wife  did  not  hinder  him.  He  was  sure  of  her 
love:  he  knew  she  must  adore  him,  as  all  the  others 
did.  And,  leaving  Lily  in  a  corner,  in  the  shade  of  a  pil- 
lar, with  his  eyes  he  devoured  all  that  powdered  flesh,  all 
those  coarse  wigs. 

Lily  hated  him  at  such  times.  She  could  have  boxed 
his  ears.  She  had  enough  of  it,  at  last.  One  evening,  she 
caught  hold  of  his  arm  to  take  him  away,  furious  that  a 
gentleman  could  find  a  pleasure  in  making  his  wife  look 
so  ridiculous!  And  Trampy,  more  or  less  flattered  at 
what  he  considered  a  fond  wife's  jealousy,  was  turning  to 


PLAYING    'EM    IN  123 

go,  when  a  lady  with  plumes  on  her  head  and  a  woolly 
dog  under  her  arm  greeted  him  with : 

"Hullo,  old  boy !    Glad  to  see  you,  Trampy !" 

Lily — it  was  a  distant  memory,  but  no  matter — recog- 
nized Poland,  the  Parisienne,  with  the  painted  face  and 
the  violent  scent.  Trampy  took  a  step  backward.  He 
expected  a  scene,  though  he  owed  her  nothing,  after  all ; 
but  she  did  not  seem  angry,  no.  On  the  contrary,  she 
looked  at  him  with  a  roguish  eye.  She  knew  of  Trampy's 
marriage,  no  doubt,  as  she  knew  of  his  conquests,  having 
been  his  victim  herself. 

"Hullo,  old  boy !"  repeated  Poland,  sizing  up  Lily  with 
an  appraising  glance  and  then  fixing  her  eyes  upon 
Trampy.  "Still  having  your  successes,  old  boy  ?  Is  this 
your  number  thirty  ?  Thirty-six  ?  Thirty-eight,  eh  ?" 

"What!"  Lily  broke  in,  astounded  at  these  manners. 
"What  number  thirty-six,  thirty-eight?" 

"Ugh!  A  number  in  a  lottery,"  said  Trampy,  looking 
quite  vain  between  those  two  women  in  love  with  him. 
"Yes,  a  number  .  .  .  with  which  I  drew  a  prize! 
.  .  .  Why,  by  Jove,"  he  continued,  addressing  Poland, 
"this  is  my  wife!  .  .  .  Lily  Clifton!  ...  the 
New  Zealander  on  Wheels." 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  Poland  to  Lily.  "I  did  hear  that  you 
ran  away :  tired  of  this,  eh  ?" 

And,  tapping  the  back  of  her  left  hand  with  the  palm 
of  her  right,  she  made  the  professional  gesture  that  de- 
notes a  whipping. 

"Yes,  I  was  a  bit,"  said  Lily,  feeling  rather  proud  than 
otherwise.  "I've  been  through  the  mill,  I  have!" 

"You've  had  your  fair  share,  eh?"  insisted  Poland. 
"You're  not  the  first  that  has  left  her  family  to  escape 
being  whipped.  You  did  quite  right,"  she  concluded. 

Trampy  was  dumfounded  and  utterly  floored  by  the 


124  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

revelation.  What!  He!  He!  Lily  had  married  him 
because  of  that!  Because  .  .  .  And  people  said  it! 
And  talked  about  it ! 

"Come  along,  Lily,"  said  Trampy.    "Let's  go  home." 

And,  giving  no  further  heed  to  Poland,  who  followed 
him  with  a  mocking  smile,  he  took  Lily  by  the  arm  and 
went  out  with  her. 

Lily  felt  her  arm  shake.  Trampy  was  furious,  evi- 
dently. She  saw  her  mistake,  too  late.  There  would  be 
a  stormy  scene  when  they  got  in.  Well,  who  cared? 
She  was  resolved,  under  that  obstinate  forehead  of  hers, 
to  face  the  facts.  She  had  had  enough  of  this  husband. 
And  she  meant  to  know,  that  very  moment,  if  she  was 
married  or  not  .  .  .  because  with  him  one  never 
knew.  When  she  admitted  that  she  had  married  him 
because  of  "that,"  Trampy,  in  his  humiliation  would  put 
her  out  of  doors  at  once;  if  the  marriage  wasn't  valid, 
he  would  get  rid  of  her.  There  was  no  doubt  about  it. 

And  she  did  not  have  to  wait,  for  Trampy,  even  before 
they  were  out  of  the  theater,  in  the  passage,  among  the 
trunks  and  properties,  Trampy,  unable  to  restrain  him- 
self any  longer,  seized  her  by  the  wrists  and  looked  her 
straight  in  the  face : 

"Is  it  true  ?"  he  asked,  in  a  voice  trembling  with  rage. 

Lily,  without  replying,  lowered  her  eyes  as  though  to 
say  yes,  like  a  good  little  wife,  oh,  so  sorry  to  offend 
her  husband ! 

"And,"  said  Trampy,  choking  with  shame,  "you  mar- 
ried me  for  'that :'  me,  Trampy !" 

"Yes,"  said  Lily  confusedly. 

"Damn  you !"  cried  Trampy.  "OH,  if  we  weren't  mar- 
ried for  good,  wouldn't  I  just  make  you  sleep  out  to- 
night!" 


CHAPTER  II 

Poor  Lily!  She  was  Trampy's  little  wife,  his  little 
wife  for  ever!  And  life,  monotonous  and  common,  fol- 
lowed its  usual  course:  a  week  here,  a  week  there;  and 
the  theater  every  night  at  the  fixed  time,  according  to  the 
scene-plot  which  they  went  and  consulted  on  reaching  the 
stage:  "X,  Corridor,  9.5;  Z,  Wood,  10.17;  Y,  Palace, 
11.10,"  and  so  on.  And  for  Trampy  it  was  an  everlast- 
ing grumbling  at  his  ill-luck,  a  dull  anger  at  "playing 
'em  in,"  so  sure  was  he  of  seeing  his  name  first,  always — 
"Garden,  8.30,  Trampy  Wheel-Pad"— he  who  had  had 
such  a  success  in  England  with  his  red-hot  stove.  It 
was  no  use  his  saying  to  himself  that  it  wouldn't  last, 
that  it  would  be  better  next  week.  It  was  just  as  though 
done  on  purpose.  He  played  'em  in,  always,  from  Bremen 
to  Brunswick,  from  Leipzig  to  Madgeburg: 

"I  wish  I  knew  the  son  of  a  gun  who  has  his  knife  into 
me !"  growled  Trampy,  persuaded  that  he  was  the  victim 
of  an  agent's  jealousy,  or  else  the  stage-managers  didn't 
understand  their  business. 

"If  you  had  more  talent,"  thought  Lily  to  herself,  "that 
sort  of  thing  wouldn't  happen.  I'd  like  to  see  you  with 
Pa :  he'd  show  you,  he'd  make  you  stir  your  stumps,  you 
rusty  biker !" 

However,  she  was  careful  not  to  say  so  to  him,  for  fear 
of  blows ;  and  Lily  knew  that,  if  ever  she  received  them 

125 


126  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

once,  twice,  without  returning  them,  it  was  all  up  with 
her,  she  would  lapse  under  the  yoke  again,  it  would  be- 
come a  habit :  there  would  be  nothing  for  it  but  to  leave 
her  husband,  if  she  wished  to  avoid  slaps,  just  as  she  had 
left  her  family,  to  avoid  whippings. 

That  would  have  been  too  grotesque.  She  did  not  want 
to  give  Pa  and  Ma  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  her  unhap- 
pily married.  Lily  armed  herself  with  patience ;  and  she 
needed  it !  Trampy  was  in  a  frightful  temper,  said  that 
he  would  have  been  the  ideal  husband,  if  she  had  been 
the  little  wife  he  had  dreamed  of :  but  to  think  that  she 
had  married  him  for  "that !" 

Now  it  was  the  constant  allusion  to  "that"  which  made 
him  die  with  shame.  Everywhere,  on  the  stages  of  the 
different  music-halls,  people  had  for  Lily  that  sort  of 
sympathetic  pity  which  they  feel  for  a  performing  dog: 
they  approved  of  her  running  away;  everybody  seemed 
to  know  about  it.  Poland,  it  must  be  said,  scored  a  fine 
revenge  against  Trampy,  without  counting  the  artistes 
who  had  seen  Lily  practising  and  who  knew  what  harsh 
treatment  meant,  the  Munich  Roofers,  among  others,  real 
ones,  with  their  blows  of  the  hat,  gee ! 

Among  them,  it  became  the  fashion,  when  they  saw 
Lily,  to  tap  the  back  of  their  hands,  and  then  to  applaud 
with  the  tip  of  the  nail,  as  though  to  approve  her  flight. 
Lily  at  first  was  annoyed  at  the  reputation  for  cruelty 
which  they  were  giving  her  Pa.  He  was  right  to  hit  her, 
she  thought,  sometimes.  She  was  also  annoyed  on  her 
own  account.  She  was  an  artiste,  damn  it!  It  was  not 
only  a  question  of  smackings!  Why,  if  she  hadn't  had 
it  in  her  .  .  .  !  It  was  a  gift!  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  excuse  the  folly  of  her  marriage,  she  let  them 
talk,  without  protesting,  like  a  poor  little  thing  who  would 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  127 

still  be  with  her  Pa  and  Ma  if  she  had  been  treated 
"fair." 

And  there  were  always  angry  disputes  between  her  and 
Trampy.  They  were  seen  to  disappear  through  the  stage- 
entrance,  Lily  with  an  arrogant  air,  Trampy  drooping 
his  head,  his  lips  distorted  with  stinging  replies.  Lily, 
though  she  was  not  performing  at  the  theater,  sometimes 
received  a  letter  there.  When  there  was  one  for  her  in 
the  heap  of  envelopes,  bearing  the  stamps  of  all  countries, 
which  had  been  round  the  world  prior  to  "waiting  ar- 
rival" in  the  doorkeeper's  pigeonholes,  Trampy  looked 
at  her  furiously,  wanted  to  know.  Lily  refused.  Forth- 
with, in  the  passages,  or  on  the  stage,  endless  disputes 
went  on  between  them  .  .  .  oh,  not  in  the  least  tragic 
in  appearance  and  interlarded  with  "Hullo,  boys!"  and 
"Hullo,  girls !"  to  left  and  right,  whenever  they  passed 
any  acquaintances.  And  in  a  low  voice,  abruptly: 

"Show  it  to  me,  you  wench !" 

"Shut  up,  you  footy  rotter !" 

Trampy  could  not  forgive  Lily  for  marrying  him  on 
that  account.  He,  who  had  only  to  choose  among  the 
crowd  that  walks  the  boards  or  flutters  about  in  muslin 
skirts,  suffered  from  Lily's  scorn,  looked  upon  himself 
as  a  sultan  dethroned  before  the  eyes  of  his  harem.  In 
order  to  infuriate  Lily,  though  he  did  not  feel  in  the 
least  like  laughing,  he  exaggerated  his  conquering  ways. 
It  ended  by  affecting  his  work.  Only  the  night  before, 
he  had  got  drunk  with  two  "sisters"  out  of  ten:  the 
fourth  and  seventh  from  the  right.  Result:  he  was  still 
in  bed  when  the  matinee  began.  And  his  performance 
went  so  badly  that  they  had  to  drop  the  curtain  on  him. 
That  would  pass  for  once :  an  illness  was  allowable ;  but  it 
couldn't  go  on  at  that  rate.  He  was  becoming  worse 


128  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

than  the  head-balancer  who  tumbled  off  his  perch,  with- 
out having  his  excuse  of  sorrow,  the  loss  of  a  beloved 
wife,  seeing  that  he,  Trampy,  had*  a  dear  little  wife  and 
very  much  alive,  this  one ! 

Lily,  in  her  calmer  moments,  foresaw  that  they  would 
soon  have  to  face  hard  times,  flat  poverty.  She  felt  her 
contempt  for  Trampy  increase.  Those  sketch-comedi- 
ans, those  tramp  cyclists,  pooh,  they  were  less  than 
nothing,  bluff,  that's  all,  as  old  Martello  said ! 

She  saw  her  dreams  flung  to  the  ground.  At  first,  it 
had  been  charming  for  her,  so  full  of  novelty,  but,  after 
all,  she  had  only  changed  masters.  She  ended  by  consider- 
ing herself  more  unhappy  than  she  had  been  with  Pa  and 
Ma.  To  begin  with,  Pa  always  had  money.  She  brought 
them  in  a  lot.  She  lived  much  less  comfortably  with 
Trampy.  She  used  to  think  that  being  a  married  woman 
would  change  everything,  whereas — not  a  bit  of  it! — 
there  was  no  change  at  all:  potatoes,  coal,  all  sorts  of 
dirty,  messy  things ;  and  no  Maud  to  help  her.  And  it 
was  always  as  in  the  old  days :  damp  sheets,  dirty  glasses, 
rickety  tables,  beds  with  worn-out  mattresses ;  and  the 
nights  were  dull  as  ditch-water.  Trampy  had  hoped  for 
something  different,  expected  to  find  a  whole  harem  in 
Lily,  his  thirty-six  girls  in  one,  including  Ave  Maria, 
with  her  body  like  a  wildcat's.  Alas,  it  was  far  from 
that! 

Lily  loathed  those  nights.  Love,  yes,  but  not  that,  not 
that!  Sacred  love,  not  profane  love  (Lily  had  seen  paint- 
ings of  it  in  museums  and  remembered  the  title).  Love, 
that  is  to  say,  to  lie  ever  so  nicely  on  the  breast  of  the  dear 
one,  yes,  as  with  Glass-Eye,  and  dream  of  hats  and  dia- 
monds. No  doubt,  it  was  ambitious  to  want  so  much.  She, 
who  had  seen  everything,  had  never  come  across  that; 


PLAYING  'EM   IN 


but  it  was  what  she  wanted,  what  she  had  been  promised, 
damn  it  !  Things  were  going  from  bad  to  worse.  Mem- 
ories of  her  childhood  moved  her  almost  to  tears,  when 
she  thought  of  it:  those  happy  times  in  Africa,  on  the 
straw  beside  the  horses,  the  stars  seen  through  the  tent 
and  the  smell  of  the  elephants.  When  she  was  there,  per- 
haps that  had  seemed  less  sweet  to  her  :  the  hard  ground, 
the  noise  of  the  chains;  but  everything  was  made  more 
poetic  by  remembrance:  it  was  the  past,  what!  Nights 
sweet  as  milk,  far  from  a  man  reeking  of  tobacco.  And 
not  only  her  early  childhood,  but  her  life  of  yesterday  re- 
turned to  her  :  touring  with  the  troupe,  the  oatmeal  por- 
ridge and  the  cakes  she  made  —  bricks  !  —  but  Pa  laughed 
at  them,  took  them  good-humoredly,  whereas  Trampy 
lost  his  temper.  In  those  days,  it  is  true,  she  wasn't  a 
lady,  she  used  to  work;  but  they  had  good  fun,  all  the 
same,  in  the  dressing-rooms  ;  they  had  tea  at  the  theater, 
romps  in  the  passages,  or  else  did  crochet-work,  to  pass 
the  time  ;  and  all  those  practical  jokes,  intensified  by  dis- 
tance: hustling  Glass-Eye  into  the  hamper;  coaxing  the 
black  cat  into  the  dressing-room,  for  luck  ;  or  making 
the  pantomime  lady  speak  her  tag;  or  going  in  to  the 
Roofers,  on  some  pretext,  and  giving  a  whistle  which 
made  them  all  rush  out,  dressed  or  undressed  or  half- 
dressed,  never  mind,  and  spin  round  three  times  to  ward 
off  the  ill  omen:  all  those  memories  touched  her  till  she 
felt  inclined  to  cry.  Oh,  if  she  had  been  with  her  Pa 
now,  she  would  have  sat  down  on  his  knee  and  begged 
his  pardon  ! 

At  such  times,  if  Trampy  became  affectionate  and  tried 
to  kiss  his  little  wife,  Lily  would  simply  turn  her  back 
on  him.  Poor  Trampy  !  And  he  could  not  play  the  master  ! 
For,  call  on  the  agents  as  he  might  and  write  as  many  fine 


130  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

letters  as  he  pleased — an  art  in  which  he  excelled — work 
was  becoming  scarce.  He  no  longer  had  any  money.  One 
pay-day,  Trampy  was  obliged  to  confess  that  he  had  had 
his  salary  in  advance  and  spent  it ;  a  money-lender  held 
his  contract  and  kept  back  three-quarters  of  his  pay. 
Trampy,  tormented  by  urgent  needs,  had  let  himself  in 
with  a  Brixton  "financier,"  a  specialist  in  "loans  from  five 
pounds  upward,  music-hall  artistes  treated  with  the 
strictest  confidence,"  who  pocketed  nearly  the  whole. 
Now  Lily  just  happened  to  want  a  new  dress,  a  new  pet- 
ticoat and  a  tiny  mother-of-pearl  lucky  charm.  Trampy 
had  to  own  that  he  couldn't  afford  these  fancies  and  Lily 
had  a  fit  of  temper!  But  then  why  promise  so  many 
things  to  a  poor  little  wife  who  deserved  better  than  that  ? 

"A  poor  little  wife,"  said  Trampy,  "should  marry  her 
husband  for  love  and  not  to  escape  whippings  !  There  are 
ups  and  downs  in  the  profession.  It  was  your  own  look- 
out ;  you  shouldn't  have  married  a  star !" 

"A  star!"  cried  Lily,  with  a  nervous  laugh.  "You  a 
star !  A  damned  comedian !  A  nice  sort  of  star,  indeed  ! 
A  music-hall  could  have  twenty  black  cats  in  it  and  you'd 
turn  them  into  a  white  elephant !" 

In  other  words,  Trampy,  according  to  her,  was  a  Jonah, 
good  only  for  playing  the  people  in,  if  that ! 

"A  wife  has  no  right  to  speak  to  her  husband  as  you 
do!"  exclaimed  Trampy,  leaping  up  under  the  insult. 
"You  deserve  a  good  thrashing!" 

"None  of  that!"  said  Lily  angrily,  ready  to  fly  at  his 
throat. 

"A  wife,"  resumed  Trampy,  with  great  dignity,  "helps 
her  husband,  instead  of  insulting  him." 

"We're  in  for  it,  I  suppose !"  said  Lily. 

"Certainly,  we're  in  for  it !    I  have  no  engagement  now, 


P  L  A  Y I N  G  'E  M   I N  131 

but  that's  no  reason  why  you  shouldn't  find  one.  Look 
for  one  and  work !" 

Lily  was  in  for  it,  knee-deep,  as  she  said.  She  was  not 
excessively  astonished:  it  was  the  inevitable  end!  Not 
that  she  disliked  to  work:  her  idleness,  on  the  contrary, 
was  beginning  to  pall  upon  her ;  but  it  was  the  humilia- 
tion of  going  back  to  it  after  putting  on  so  much  side  and 
posing  as  the  lady.  She  had  worked  for  Pa;  now  she 
would  work  for  Trampy;  it  was  natural  and  proper. 
There  were  exceptions — the  wife  at  home,  as  Jimmy  said, 
that  josser ! — but  they  were  rare. 

"Take  up  your  bike  again,"  said  Trampy,  after  a  pause. 
"Be  a  good  little  wife,  help  me  out  of  this.  I  have  some- 
thing in  my  mind,  a  scheme  which  will  make  us  rich; 
you'll  see  later  on." 

"But,"  said  Lily,  "I  haven't  a  stage  bike,  and  yours  is 
really  too  ugly." 

"I  know  of  one  for  sale." 

"Very  well,  I'll  work,"  said  Lily.  "I'll  make  them  give 
me  this  tour  which  they  promised  you  and  didn't  sign  for ; 
and  to-morrow  you  shall  see!" 

At  heart,  Lily  was  not  sorry  to  show  her  husband  how 
people  got  out  of  a  scrape,  when  they  had  talent ;  and,  the 
next  day,  she  went  to  an  agent,  accompanied  by  Trampy, 
looking  very  dignified.  Her  cheeky  feather  was  made 
to  dance  attendance  for  a  moment;  and  then  she  was 
shown  into  the  office.  Lily  Clifton  ?  The  New  Zealander 
on  Wheels?  Straight  away  a  contract,  signed  in  dupli- 
cate !  A  week  in  each  town ;  later  on,  perhaps,  a  month 
in  Berlin,  at  the  Kolossal.  Lily  displayed  wonderful  tact, 
did  not  triumph  too  openly  over  Trampy.  She  acted  to 
perfection  the  part  of  the  little  lady  who  takes  up  the 
bike  again  just  for  fun — as  in  the  time  of  her  "French 


132  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

governess" — or  rather  of  a  dear  little  thing-  wholly 
wrapped  up  now  in  her  wifely  duty:  her  poor  husband 
ill,  she  herself  needing  exercise,  just  for  fun,  you  know. 

On  leaving  the  agent's,  she  bought  some  material, 
then  ran  home,  cut  out  stage  dresses.  In  the  evening, 
Lily  was  still  hemming  and  stitching,  indefatigably, 
seized  once  more  with  professional  pride  after  her  ex- 
cursions into  private  life.  And,  all  night,  under  the 
lamp,  she  contrived,  cut  out  and  sewed.  Then  came  prac- 
tice, without  Pa.  In  an  hour,  in  spite  of  the  new  ma- 
chine, which  put  her  out,  she  had  picked  up  her  "times" 
again.  She  felt  as  if  she  had  been  spinning  round  the 
night  before,  under  Pa's  eye,  so  absolutely  at  her  ease 
was  she,  with  her  head  on  the  saddle  or  twirling  on  the 
back-wheel. 

And,  on  the  following  Monday,  her  first  appearance,  her 
name  on  the  walls :  "Miss  Lily"  in  big  letters,  right  at  the 
top  of  the  posters,  "Miss  Lily,"  not  "Mrs."  or  "Madame." 
Had  she  had  ten  children,  two  husbands  and  three  di- 
vorces, she  would  still  have  been  "Miss,"  everywhere  and 
always,  as  a  further  attraction  for  the  swells  in  the  front 
boxes  and  as  a  certificate  of  youth.  Mighty  few  hus- 
bands, on  the  continent  especially ;  not  more  men  of  any 
kind  than  could  be  helped,  on  the  stage,  except  a  few 
noted  "profs,"  standing  by  the  perches  of  velvet  and  steel 
or  under  the  trapezes,  displaying,  beside  the  pink-silk 
tights,  against  the  "palace"  back-drop,  the  faultless  cor- 
rectness of  their  full-dress  suits.  But,  for  the  rest,  peo- 
ple preferred  to  ignore  husbands,  brothers  and  "friends ;" 
Lily  had  known  some  who  never  showed  themselves  at 
all,  who  remained  squatting  at  home,  so  as  not  to  stand 
in  their  wives'  way. 

Trampy,  for  that  matter,  knew  better  than  to  parade 


PLAYING  'EM   IN  133 

himself  with  Lily.  And  he  preferred  it  so.  He  could 
have  wished  one  thing  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others :  that 
people  should  not  know  of  his  marriage,  that  they  should 
cease  to  speak  of  it.  Unfortunately,  this  was  not  to  be. 
The  story  of  the  whippings  was  enlivening  Lisle  Street, 
exaggerated,  as  usual.  The  Bill  and  Boom  tour,  the  Har- 
rasford  tour  were  beginning  to  spread  it  on  every  stage  in 
England;  before  six  months  were  over,  it  would  have 
made  the  round  of  the  world  from  the  Klondike  to  Cal- 
cutta. What  a  disgrace  for  Trampy !  Yet  no  sooner  had 
he  put  his  New  Zealander  on  her  wheels  again  than 
Trampy  blossomed  out  once  more.  After  all,  who  cared 
if  people  were  seen  to  smack  the  back  of  their  hands? 
He  wasn't  to  be  put  out  by  a  little  thing  like  that : 

"Just  so,"  he  seemed  to  say.  "We  are  married,  whip- 
pings or  no  whippings,  and  I  am  the  master ;  I  have  set 
her  to  work  again ;  and  there  you  are !" 

Trampy's  reputation,  so  far  from  suffering,  increased; 
all  his  compeers  now  envied  him  from  the  bottom  of  their 
hearts;  the  bosses,  the  profs,  the  managers,  the  Pas,  the 
Mas  treated  him,  in  their  own  minds,  as  a  lucky  dog,  all 
the  more  inasmuch  as  Trampy  was  not  uppish  and  gladly 
stood  drinks,  while  his  wife,  "Miss  Lily,"  made  money 
for  him  with  her  breakneck  tricks.  It  was  much  smarter 
than  doing  it  for  one's  self:  the  great  thing  was  to  have 
a  "girl"  like  that!  Trampy  was  having  his  revenge:  he 
had  been  laughed  at ;  he  now  had  the  laugh  on  them !  and 
Trampy  knew  glorious  times,  in  the  Biergarten,  or  loung- 
ing at  street-corners,  near  the  stage-door,  chaffing  the 
girls,  hat  cocked  back,  hands  deep  in  his  pockets,  a  cigar 
stuck  between  his  teeth.  He  told  the  story  of  his  life,  not 
without  pride ;  said  that  he  must  write  it  one  day,  sell  it  to 
The  New  York  Standard  for  a  thousand  dollars.  The 


THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

girls  he'd  had :  whew !  His  love  adventures :  all  over  the 
world,  by  Jove !  And  his  marriage  with  Lily  Clifton,  the 
New  Zealander  on  Wheels,  a  dear  little  wife,  so  gentle, 
so  obedient.  No,  he  had  no  reason  to  complain  of  his 
life.  He  would  write  it,  mark  his  words !  To  say  noth- 
ing of  a  scheme  he  had  in  mind : 

"Just  you  wait  and  see !  It's  a  trick  to  make  a  million- 
aire of  you  or  break  your  neck." 

"Will  you  make  Miss  Lily  do  it?" 

"I'll  see,  I'll  think  it  over,"  said  Trampy,  in  a  lordly 
tone. 

The  directors,  the  stage-managers  took  no  notice  of 
him;  but,  among  the  artistes,  Trampy  Wheel-Pad  was 
some  one,  he  enjoyed  his  leisure,  recovered  his  self-assur- 
ance :  if,  in  addition,  he  could  have  destroyed  the  legend 
of  the  whippings,  he  would  have  been  perfectly  happy. 
He  would  turn  the  conversation  on  the  subject  of  smack- 
ings in  the  music-hall  generally,  in  the  hope  of  hearing 
them  contradicted  or  made  little  of;  but  it  was  no  use; 
every  one  believed  in  them :  all,  boys  and  girls,  even  the 
most  spoiled,  quoted  facts:  blows  which  they  had  re- 
ceived! my!  blows  hard  enough  to  split  the  front  of  a 
music-hall  from  top  to  bottom!  The  nation  with  the 
painted  faces,  the  blue-chins  seemed  to  vie  with  one  an- 
other as  to  who  had  been  most  through  the  mill. 

"You're  exaggerating,"  said  Trampy.  "It  may  be  true, 
to  a  certain  extent,  in  your  case.  But,  Miss  Lily,  for  in- 
stance :  do  you  mean  to  say  you  believe  all  she  tells  ?" 

"Oh,  quite !"  said  two  Roofer  girls  who  were  there. 

They  had  seen  Lily  practising.  And  they  knew  what  it 
meant.  They  had  had  their  share,  too :  old  Roofer,  gee ! 
And  Lily  had  done  quite  right  to  run  away  from  her 
whippings. 


PLAYING  'EM   IN 


135 


"There  you  go  again!"  said  Trampy.    "Can't  you  see 
she's  humbugging  you?" 

But  he  pulled  himself  up  sud- 
denly, if  Lily  arrived,  for,  in 
spite  of  his  big  airs,  he  was  all 
submission  in  her  presence. 

"Oh,  really !  Glass-Eye  caught 
it  instead  of  me,  I  suppose,"  said 
Lily,  drawing  back  her  shoulder 
as  though  threatening  to  smack 
him,  "when  Pa  went  for  me  with 
his  leather  belt.  And  I  have  wit- 
nesses. I've  been  through  the 
mill,  if  anybody  has:  that  much 
I  can  say !" 

Lily,  after  this  burst  of  pride,  V  \% 

would  lower  her  head,  a  trifle 
embarrassed,   like   a   dear   little       |j| 
thing,  all  wrapped  up  in  her  du- 
ties as  a  wife,  a  wife  whom  her 
husband   would  cause  to  break     • 
her  back  one  of  these  days,  per-    ^  ' 
haps. 

This  created  a  circle  of  ad- 
mirers around  her:  all,  besides, 
agreed  in  saying  that  you  had  to 
have  the  business  "rubbed  into 
your  skin"  to  be  as  clever  as  she 
was.  ;J|. 

"'K  you!"  said  Lily,  with  a 
stage  bow.  :r: 

It  was  certain  that  she  made 
a  hit.  They  wanted  her  every-  TRAMPY  ENJOYED  HIS  LEISURE 


/ 


136  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

where.  She  was  asked  to  appear  in  tights.  The  engage- 
ments grew  better  and  better.  "Miss  Lily"  was  more 
and  more  talked'  about.  It  was  no  longer  a  Trampy 
Wheel-Pad  on  a  rusty  bike :  it  was  grace,  youth  .  .  . 
and  stage-smiles  fit  to  turn  the  heads  in  the  front  boxes. 
When  Lily  appeared  on  the  stage,  she  transfixed  every 
white  shirt-front,  every  opera-glass.  She  took  a  real  de- 
light in  it  all.  Her  beauty  captivated  the  audience.  In 
her  pink  tights,  Lily  turned  and  turned  and  turned,  to 
the  hum  of  the  orchestra,  against  the  "wood"  back-drop 
of  purple  and  gold.  Then  she  returned  to  the  wings,  all 
excited  by  her  show,  received  bouquets,  chatted  freely 
with  the  comrades.  She  met  old  friends :  the  green- 
eyed  female-impersonator,  for  instance,  pressed  her 
closely.  He,  too,  was  touring  Germany :  a  week  here,  a 
week  there.  Chance  brought  them  together  again.  He 
was  enraptured  by  Lily :  how  lovely  she  had  grown !  He 
would  have  liked  to  adopt  her.  .  .  .  Lily  threw  her 
head  back,  laughed  and  repelled  him  with  a  thump  in  the 
ribs  when  he  tried  to  kiss  her. 

Another  time,  she  saw  the  Bambinis,  who  were  play- 
ing, by  a  lucky  accident,  at  matinees  only  and  by  special 
permission,  because  of  their  age.  She  larked  with  them 
like  a  child.  Elsewhere,  it  was  Nunkie  Fuchs,  on  his  way 
to  Vienna,  where  he  was  going  to  see  to  the  building  of 
his  pigeon-house,  leaving  the  Three  Graces  for  a  few 
weeks  on  the  Harrasford  tour.  He  had  seen  Lily's  name 
on  the  posters  and  had  come  to  say,  "How  do  you  do?" 
to  her. 

And,  amid  the  thunder  of  the  band  or  the  lull  of  the 
entr'actes,  Lily  received  tidings  of  her  Pa  and  Ma  and 
details  of  what  happened  after  her  flight,  as  reported  by 
Glass-Eye  Maud.  After  Lily's  departure,  they  had  hunted 


P  L  A  Y  I  N  G  'E  M    I N  137 

everywhere.  Then  Ma  thought  of  looking  in  the  trunk : 
the  pretty  dress  was  gone.  Then  they  had  rushed  to  the 
theater :  no  Lily.  Then  they  had  guessed :  Lily  had  run 
away.  Ma  fell  on  her  knees  and  cried  and  cried.  Pa 
seized  his  revolver  and  spoke  of  going  to  shoot  the  man 
who  had  robbed  him  of  his  child !  His  little  Lily  gone ! 
And  the  contracts  had  to  be  canceled  and  Pa  did  not  go 
out  for  a  week  and  the  house  remained  still  and  silent 
for  a  month.  Pa,  thoroughly  upset,  cried  whenever 
Lily's  name  was  mentioned  and  was  near  dying  of  shame 
when  he  felt  himself  blamed,  even  by  those  who  used  to 
congratulate  him  on  his  way  of  turning  out  an  artiste. 
And  Nunkie  himself  maintained  that  one  must  know  how 
to  handle  young  girls :  gentleness  above  all. 

Lily  bit  her  lips  when  she  heard  that.  Her  little  nose 
tingled.  She  hardened  her  features,  wrinkled  her  obsti- 
nate forehead,  lest  she  also  should  cry : 

"If  I  had  to  do  it  again,  I  would!"  she  said  quickly, 
just  like  that,  without  reflecting,  in  the  way  one  says  a 
thing  to  one's  self  which  one  knows  to  be  untrue. 

They  also  told  her  things  that  made  her  laugh.  Glass- 
Eye  Maud  no  longer  left  her  hole,  cried  like  a  tap,  so 
much  so  that  one  day,  Ma,  noticing  an  insipid  taste  in 
the  porridge,  threatened  her  with  the  sack  if  that  sort  of 
thing  went  on. 

As  for  business,  people  did  not  know  exactly.  Pa,  they 
said,  had  written  to  a  Hauptmann's  "fat  freak"  to  take 
Lily's  place.  The  reply  ran : 

"No,  thanks,  I'm  all  right  where  I  am. 

"FAT  FREAK." 

The  signature  was  underlined,  for  people  had  ended  by 
knowing  about  Pa's  disrespectful  remarks.  Lily  laughed 
when  she  heard  this :  my ! 


138  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"I  will  come  .  .  .  when  you  take  to  wearing 
braces !"  another  had  answered. 

This  was  an  allusion  to  the  blows  with  the  belt;  and 
Lily,  with  head  thrown  back,  full-throated,  her  hand  on 
her  heart,  laughed  .  .  .  laughed  .  .  .  laughed : 

"Bravo,  girls!"  she  said,  applauding  with  her  thumb- 
nail. 

And  Tom?  Tom  had  had  the  boot,  with  a  bang  on  the 
nose,  for  carrying  letters  to  Lily.  For  Pa  ended  by  learn- 
ing all :  some  one  had  told  him. 

"Jimmy,  that  son  of  a  gun !"  said  Lily. 

And  Jimmy  himself,  what  had  become  of  that  josser? 
Jimmy  was  no  longer  stage-manager.  He  had  left  every- 
thing after  Lily's  flight.  He,  too,  had  flown  into  a  terri- 
ble rage  when  he  heard  about  it  ...  spoke  of 
Trampy  as  a  thief  in  the  night  .  .  .  would  have 
killed  him,  if  he  had  met  him  .  .  .  and  he  was  going 
to  star  in  his  turn. 

"Singing?"  asked  Lily. 

"No,  something  to  do  with  the  bike." 

"What  a  fool!"  thought  Lily.  "Fancies  himself  an 
artiste  because  he  used  to  mend  my  bike  for  me !" 

Jimmy,  it  seemed,  had  hired  a  huge  shed  and  there,  all 
alone,  fitted  up  some  apparatus  of  a  complicated  kind. 
He  never  went  out  by  day.  He  worked  and  worked.  A 
trick  to  break  your  neck  at,  it  appeared,  or  make  your 
fortune. 

"Those  jossers !"  exclaimed  Lily  scornfully. 

And  what  was  he  going  to  do  on  his  bike?  Nobody 
knew.  There  was  something  published  in  the  papers,  they 
said.  It  was  something  on  the  back-wheel. 

"What  rot !" 

Lily  laughed  open-mouthed,  laughed  with  all  her  mus- 


PLAYING    'EM    IN  139 

cles,  twisting  her  hips,  splitting  her  sides,  smacking  her 
thighs.  What !  Jimmy  on  the  back-wheel !  He !  He ! 
He  cutting  twirls,  that  josser ! 

"And  the  troupe?" 

The  troupe  nobody  knew  about :  dispersed,  most  likely ; 
the  troupe,  after  all,  was  Lily.  When  she  went,  every- 
thing was  bound  to  fall  to  pieces.  Pa  didn't  care  either ; 
told  any  one  who  would  listen  to  him  that  he  was  going 
to  retire  to  Kennington,  that  he  was  well  off  now  .  .  . 
thousands  of  pounds  in  the  bank  .  .  .  made  his  for- 
tune .  .  .  meant  to  live  on  his  dividends. 

"I  knew  it,"  said  Lily;  "I  knew  I  had  made  his  for- 
tune !  Thousands  of  pounds,  damn  it !" 

"Lily,  don't  swear  like  that !"  said  Nunkie  Fuchs.  "It's 
not  right !" 

Lily  lowered  her  head,  taken  aback;  excused  herself, 
like  a  lady  who  knows  her  manners : 

"And  yet,"  she  said  to  herself,  "if  he  had  had  my  trou- 
bles, that  old  rogue,  perhaps  he  would  have  sworn,  too !" 

For  Trampy  was  becoming  terrible :  life  was  impossible 
with  him.  All  the  money  which  Lily  earned  went  on 
champagne  .  .  .  and  on  girls,  probably ;  and  the 
more  she  earned  the  greedier  he  grew.  He  wanted  money, 
heaps  of  money ;  Lily  had  nothing  left  for  herself.  Trampy 
sought  out  new  tricks,  invented  balancing-feats,  made  her 
practise  them,  in  the  morning,  on  the  stage,  with  his 
sleeves  turned  back  and  his  trousers  turned  up,  absolutely 
like  a  Pa.  Lily,  accustomed  to  yield  obedience,  relapsed 
under  the  yoke.  Bike  in  the  morning,  bike  at  the  mati- 
nee, bike  in  the  evening ;  and,  with  that,  the  cooking,  the 
washing-up  ...  and  not  a  farthing  in  her  pocket, 
though  she  had  made  a  fortune  for  her  Pa,  damn  it !  Pa 
living  on  his  income  at  Kennington,  while  she  continued 


140  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

her  life  of  slavery !  Wasn't  it  enough  to  make  her  send 
everybody  to  the  devil,  and  Nunkie,  that  old  rogue,  with 
the  rest?  A  pack  of  nigger  drivers,  that's  what  they 
were,  every  one  of  them!  And  what  an  idiot  she  was, 
to  keep  on  barking  her  shins  for  other  people !  Would 
she  go  on  doing  it  until  she  was  fifty  ?  And  if  she  didn't 
begin  now  to  put  money  by,  who  would  do  it  for  her 
later?  Not  that  worthless  husband,  surely!  He,  who, 
that  very  morning,  had  dared,  the  loafer,  to  tell  her  of  a 
scheme — a  sort  of  a  risky  trick  which  she  was  to  per- 
form, a  thing  calculated  to  break  your  head  or  make  a 
millionaire  of  you — for  him,  of  course,  just  as  for  Pa! 
It  had  come  to  this,  that  her  turn  wasn't  good  enough, 
that  it  had  to  be  more  sensational ;  and  she  was  expected 
to  make  it  so  for  a  man  she  didn't  love !  Oh,  she  had 
put  him  nicely  in  his  place!  Rather!  Thank  you  for 
nothing :  none  of  that  for  her !  In  the  evening  Lily  was 
still  trembling,  with  her  two  elbows  on  the  table,  as  she 
sat  facing  her  glass  in  her  dressing-room;  angrily  she 
crushed  the  grease-paint  on  to  her  cheeks,  which  were 
pale  with  rage. 

Ting!  Straight  on  to  the  stage,  turning  round  and 
round,  fifty  rounds  from  habit,  mechanically,  without  any 
"go"  in  them  :  an  indolent  performance,  which  would  have 
earned  her  a  good  smacking  in  Pa's  time. 

"You  were  shockingly  bad!"  said  Trampy,  who  was 
waiting  for  her  in  the  bar,  after  watching  her  from  the 
front.  "What's  the  matter  with  you  ?  Are  you  ill?' 

Lily  did  not  even  answer. 

"I'm  speaking  to  you,"  said  Trampy  crossly.  "You 
'did  nothing  right  to-night." 

"Yes,  I  know ;  that'll  do,"  said  Lily. 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  141 

"It's  not  a  question  of  'Yes,  I  know,'  but  of  doing  better 
next  time,"  said  Trampy. 

"I'm  not  taking-  any  orders  to-night,"  said  Lily. 

"No,  darling,  but  there  was  an  agent  in  the  house.  He 
must  have  thought  you  bad." 

"That's  none  of  your  business !" 

"And,  if  you  don't  get  engagements,  what's  to  become 
of  us?" 

"I  don't  care  a  hang,"  said  Lily.  "I  can  always  man- 
age." 

"You  .  .  .  you  .  .  .  and  what  about  me  ?  We're 
married,  aren't  we  ?" 

"But  the  money  I  earn's  mine,"  said  Lily.  "I  mean  to 
buy  dresses  and  whatever  I  want  to,  with  my  money. 
You'll  be  wanting  to  come  on  the  stage  next,  in  evening- 
dress,  to  stand  over  me  while  I  do  my  turn,  and  getting 
out  your  belt.  Do  you  take  me  for  your  daughter,  tell 
me?" 

"What  I'm  saying,"  said  Trampy,  aghast,  "is  for  your 
good,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  business,  the  salary." 

"My  business,  my  salary,  damn  it !"  cried  Lily.  "Mine, 
mine,  do  you  understand?  And  it  concerns  nobody  but 
myself!" 


CHAPTER  III 

It  came  as  a  smack  in  the  jaw  to  Trampy. 

"My  pay,  my  work,  mine!" 

It  meant  no  more  pocket-money  with  which  to  lord  it  at 
the  bar.  It  meant  a  cheap  cigarette  instead  of  his  glorious 
cigar.  It  was  the  end  of  a  beautiful  dream;  and  the 
awakening  was  a  hard  one.  At  first,  he  hoped  to  make 
Lily  jealous  by  going  about  openly  with  the  stage-girls ; 
but  she  no  longer  paid  any  attention,  seemed  to  suggest 
that  he  had  better  amuse  himself  on  his  side  and  she  on 
hers: 

"What  is  sauce  for  the  goose  is  sauce  for  the  gander," 
she  said. 

Lily  would  no  longer  take  his  orders ;  and,  because  he 
felt  his  wife  escape  him,  it  was  he,  Trampy,  who  now 
became  jealous.  When,  from  a  distance,  among  the  tables, 
he  saw  Lily  ride  round  the  stage  and  all  those  heads 
raised  toward  her,  those  opera-glasses  pointed  at  her, 
he  followed  her  with  an  anxious  eye.  "Miss  Lily!" 
"Miss  Lily"  was  his  wife,  after  all !  Those  rounded  arms, 
that  lissom  figure,  those  twinkling  legs  were  all  his,  every 
bit  of  them !  He  was  the  husband,  by  Jove !  It  was  not 
a  marriage  for  fun,  as  with  Ave  Maria:  it  was  a  mar- 
riage for  good  and  all,  which  had  cost  him  two  pounds — 
"Yes,  siree!" — at  the  Kennington  registry-office.  And  it 
wasn't  only  her  flightiness,  her  smiles  at  the  front  boxes, 

142 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  143 

but  "my  work,  my  salary,  mine"  into  the  bargain!  She 
was  acting  like  a  bad  wife,  forgetting  her  most  sacred 
duties ! 

Lily  stood  on  no  ceremony  with  him,  took  her  title  of 
"Miss"  seriously :  very  flattering  for  him,  very  flattering, 
he  must  say !  He  no  longer  knew  himself :  he  who,  in  the 
old  days,  used  to  answer :  "My  lord,  rely  on  me !"  when 
a  half-tipsy  swell  invited  him  to  come  and  drink  cham- 
pagne with  some  stage-girls,  now  became  furious  if  men 
in  the  audience,  not  knowing  who  he  was,  sized  up  "Miss 
Lily"  before  him — her  shoulders,  arms  and  the  rest — • 
with  reflections  such  as  "I  could  do  with  a  bit  of  that !" 
or,  "A  nice  little  supper  ..."  He  felt  inclined  to 
shout  in  their  faces  that  she  was  no  "miss,"  but  his  wife, 
by  Jove ! 

He  became  more  and  more  jealous.  The  thought  of 
Jimmy,  especially,  kept  running  in  his  head.  He  felt  a 
twinge  whenever  he  heard  him  mentioned.  And  Jimmy 
was  often  mentioned  just  at  present,  for  he  was  said  to  be 
preparing  a  new  turn,  a  turn  which  would  make  him  fa- 
mous, unless  it  killed  him. 

"If  only  it  would !"  Trampy  hoped. 

Jimmy  was  Trampy's  bugbear.  He  had  flattered  him- 
self that  he  had  snatched  Lily  from  Jimmy  by  sheer  prow- 
ess ;  and  not  a  bit  of  it !  The  recollection  of  that  drove 
him  mad,  the  sense  of  his  powerlessness  exasperated  him, 
he  had  but  one  idea  left:  to  show  Lily  .  .  .  and 
Jimmy  .  .  .  the  sort  of  man  he  was ;  to  take  his  re- 
venge. That  great  scheme  of  his,  that  discovery  that 
would  show  what  he  was  made  of,  the  invention  which 
he  had  patented  in  America  with  Poland's  money — oh, 
she  had  revenged  herself  finely,  had  that  Parisienne! — 
well,  the  time  to  apply  himself  to  that  trick  had  come. 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Lily  had  refused  to  do  it.  All  right,  he  would  do  it  him- 
self! 

But,  if  he  was  to  succeed,  it  was  necessary  that  Lily 
should  supply  him  with  money,  more  money,  lots  of 
money.  The  apparatus  was  incomplete  and  had  probably 
got  damaged  in  the  London  warehouse  ;  it  would  need  re- 
pairs, improvements.  Now  Lily  seemed  intractable.  She 
was  vexed  at  having  to  earn  money  for  two,  pretended  to 
have  none  too  much  for  herself;  it  was  her  costumes 
now :  six  sets  of  tights,  one  for  each  evening,  pink,  green, 
red,  blue,  gray,  white  and  assorted  ornaments,  silk  rib- 
bons. .  .  . 

She  didn't  want  to  kill  herself  with  work  for  nothing, 
as  she  had  been  doing  up  to  now : 

"A  lady  isn't  a  performing  dog !"  she  said. 

Trampy  swallowed  his  bitterness  when  he  heard  that. 
Lily  was  escaping  him  altogether.  Sometimes,  he  would 
go  on  the  stage,  sit  down  in  a  corner  and,  from  there,  see 
Lily,  a  shawl  over  her  shoulders,  her  throat  wrapped  in  a 
scarf,  walk  up  and  down,  behind  the  back-drop,  like  a 
passenger  on  the  deck  of  a  ship,  at  one  time  with  a 
monkey-faced,  red-whiskered  sketch-comedian ;  at  others, 
according  to  the  chances  of  the  week,  with  the  female-im- 
personator, the  boy  with  the  green  eyes.  There  was  no 
harm  in  that :  they  were  at  home,  among  themselves,  Lily 
was  no  damned  lalerperlooser,  he  wouldn't  have  had  her 
so.  And  Trampy  did  not  dare  say  anything,  for  fear  of 
being  made  a  laughing  stock  and  also  lest  he  should  of- 
fend "Miss  Lily."  But  he  was  tormented  with  jealousy 
nevertheless,  merely  at  seeing  her  talk  pleasantly  with 
her  acquaintances.  And  yet  it  was  innocent  enough,  a 
mere  "Hullo,  Lily !"  "Hullo,  old  boy !"  by  way  of  keep- 
ing herself  in  touch  with  the  news,  for  Lily  hardly  ever 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  145 

looked  into  The  Era  or  Das  Program;  all  those  names, 
all  that  competition  frightened  her ! 

She  had  learned  nothing  new  about  Pa,  except  that  the 
troupe  still  existed,  but  in  quite  a  small  way,  of  course. 
Her  Pa  was  in  favor  of  soft  treatment,  now,  so  they  said ; 


THE  BOY  WITH  THE  GREEN  EYES 

he  had  changed  his  manner.  "Too  late !"  murmured  Lily 
thoughtfully ;  but  she  was  much  amused  when  she  heard 
that  Tom,  in  addition  to  keeping  up  his  trade  as  a  shoe- 
black, was  learning  boxing,  with  bulldog  obstinacy,  in 
order  to  give  Pa  back  his  blow  on  the  nose  and  beat  him 


146  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

in  a  square  fight.  And  didn't  some  one  say  that  Tom 
was  stage-struck,  too?  Tom,  that  dwarf,  with  his  short 
arms,  on  the  stage !  Crazy !  every  one  of  them ! 

And  then  they  were  always  talking  of  Jimmy:  Jimmy 
here,  Jimmy1  there.  It  was  becoming  serious,  Lily 
couldn't  get  over  it.  She  wondered  what  old  Martello 
would  say  if  he  heard  that :  Jimmy  an  artiste !  Pooh ! 
Nonsense !  And  it  was  true,  mind  you !  It  was  repeated 
from  mouth  to  mouth,  his  fame  was  spreading,  his  fame, 
that  is  to  say,  in  the  bars,  in  the  wings,  among  pros ;  you 
heard  his  name  mentioned  together  with  a  hundred 
others ;  but  that  already  was  a  great  deal,  that  one  could 
say,  Butt  Snyders,  Laurence,  Jimmy,  Marjutti,  all  mixed 
up,  as  though  he  were  their  equal,  he  who  had  done  noth- 
ing! But  he  would  "do,"  it  was  in  the  air:  some  stroke 
of  luck,  who  could  tell  ?  And  Lily  knew  him  to  be  ambi- 
tious. Lady  or  no  lady,  she  was  an  artiste  first  and 
foremost  and  hated  competition.  She  had  been  whipped 
for  her  rivals,  Lillian,  Edith  and  Polly,  had  caught  it  for 
Laurence  and  for  the  fat  freaks,  too,  and  she  depended  on 
her  work  for  her  bread.  When  she  saw  a  new  troupe 
come  to  the  front  it  made  her  anxious :  even  children 
"that  high,"  who  played  bike  in  between  the  pillars  of 
the  stage,  she  felt  inclined  to  stamp  upon ;  and  if  people 
ever  asked  her  advice,  she  did  not  hesitate  to  tell  them 
wrong.  Men  especially  were  disastrous  competitors,  even 
the  ignorant  ones.  You  never  knew  where  you  were 
with  them,  they  dared  do  anything !  She  could  not  help 
getting  mad  when  she  thought  of  it.  One  more  to  take 
the  bread  out  of  her  mouth !  For  it  was  all  very  well  to 
treat  him  as  a  simpleton,  to  talk  of  his  crotchets — he  had 
views  concerning  a  stage-apprentices'  fund,  a  home  of 
rest  for  superannuated  artistes  and  so  on — Lily  considered 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  147 

him  dangerous.  He  was  not  a  silly  Glass-Eye  or  a  stage- 
struck  Tom;  he  was  an  ambitious  Jimmy.  But  all  the 
same,  how  absurd !  A  hypocrite  like  that  was  fit  to  write 
to  Pa  and  get  a  poor  girl  in  trouble,  but  was  not  the  man 
to  risk  his  skin!  She  laughed,  not  a  stage  smile,  no,  a 
real  laugh,  head  thrown  back,  full-throated.  An  artiste, 
O  Lord !  Yes,  like  a  heap  of  bluffers  who  were  to  do  this 
and  that,  all  sorts  of  wonderful  things!  and  who  ended 
by  making  a  laughing  stock  of  themselves,  the  whole 
business  was  so  childish,  faked  up  with  ropes  and  weights, 
nursery-toys,  Punch-and-Judy  rubbish.  It  would  be  just 
like  that  with  Jimmy,  sure :  lots  of  noise  and  then  .  .  . 
nothing!  And  he  would  have  lost  his  place  as  manager 
and  he  would  starve,  the  josser:  that  would  teach  him 
to  be  spiteful!  And  where  was  Jimmy?  He  might 
be  very  clever,  in  his  shed  in  London,  swinging  from  his 
rope,  like  a  monkey  on  a  string,  but  to  do  that  before  an 
audience  was  different.  There  would  be  no  Jimmy  left ! 

She  liked  to  talk  to  herself  like  that.  Miss  Lily  avoided 
thinking  of  a  possible  stroke  of  luck,  she  who  had 
taken  such  pains  to  attain  so  little,  just  to  become  Mrs. 
Trampy,  to  have  the  honor  of  working  for  Trampy  and 
feeding  Trampy.  Oh,  she  was  tired  of  it,  did  all  she  could 
to  find  him  work,  to  spur  him  on !  She  even  wanted  him 
to  practise.  And  she  mentioned  Tom  and  Jimmy  to  him, 
all  those  beginners,  all  the  others  who  were  coming  on. 

"She  thinks  more  of  him  than  of  me,"  he  said  to  him- 
self. 

And  time  passed  and  passed.  It  was  now  eight  months 
that  they  had  been  traveling  through  Germany :  and  then, 
at  last,  came  Berlin,  the  center  of  the  agencies,  like  the 
plunge  into  Chicago,  after  the  Western  Tour,  or  New 
York,  after  the  Eastern,  or  Paris,  or  London,  Lily 


148  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

asked  herself  for  what  part  of  the  world  she  would  sign 
contracts.  She  would  have  liked  Australia,  South  Af- 
rica, the  States,  so  as  to  leave  her  husband  in  Europe, 
sitting  up  on  his  hind-quarters,  like  a  trained  dog,  wait- 
ing for  his  "missis"  to  come  back : 

"If  I  could  have  the  Kolossal  in  the  meantime,"  Lily 
thought.  "A  month  there  would  do  me  nicely !  I'd  like  to 
beat  the  fat  freaks  in  their  own  country  and  show  Pa  that 
I  don't  need  his  old  troupe  to  star  with !" 

And  Lily  had  some  hope :  an  agent  had  given  her  to  un- 
derstand that  she  would  be  engaged,  without  a  doubt,  at 
that  famous  music-hall.  But  no!  She  learned  that  the 
Kolossal  was  not  wanting  cyclists,  it  had  an  attraction  for 
next  month,  something  sensational,  it  was  said.  And,  in 
fact,  suddenly,  in  the  space  of  a  night,  the  walls  of  the 
capital  were  covered  with  huge  posters — "Bridging  the 
Abyss !" — at  the  Kolossal ! 

"What's  that?"  Lily  asked  herself. 

And  she  was  thunderstruck  when  she  learned  that  this 
was  Jimmy's  new  trick !  She  had  no  doubt  left  when, 
looking  into  a  bookseller's  window,  she  saw  Jimmy's  por- 
trait in  Die  Illustrirte  Zeitung,  the  popular  illustrated 
paper  in  Berlin. 

Her  arms  fell  to  her  sides !  What,  she  thought,  already  ? 
All  this  advertisement  for  that  Jimmy?  She  had  lost 
the  Kolossal  because  of  him.  Already  Jimmy  was  taking 
the  bread  out  of  her  mouth !  She  could  have  wrung  his 
neck! 

Never  had  the  New  Zealanders,  or  the  Hauptmanns, 
or  the  Pawnees,  or  any  one,  or  anybody  known  such  ad- 
vertising as  that,  except  the  great  breakneck  performers, 
Laurence,  the  Loopers,  the  Motor  Girl ;  and  even  then  the 
girl  was  packed  up  in  her  machine  like  a  sausage.  But 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  149 

"Bridging  the  Abyss,"  the  papers  said,  required  art: 
everything  depended  on  the  exact  impetus,  the  faultless 
balance.  The  press  was  filled  with  clever  puffs^  biogra- 
phies, descriptions  of  the  apparatus,  the  cool  daring  which 
it  needed  to  try  that  without  a  rope,  to  risk  the  perform- 
er's life  six  times  in  six  seconds.  London  and  Paris  were 
both  said  to  have  wanted  the  attraction ;  and  Berlin  was 
to  have  it  first ;  and  hoch  for  the  Kolossal ! 

Trampy  also  was  flabbergasted,  when  he  read  about 
this: 

"But  .  .  .  but  .  .  .  but  it's  my  apparatus  and 
nothing  else!  Why,  I  patented  it  in  America!  Do  you 
understand  now,"  he  asked,  without,  however,  entering 
into  technical  explanations,  "do  you  understand  now, 
when  I  wanted  you  to  help  me  ?  It  wasn't  a  question  of 
the  rusty  bike !  You've  made  me  miss  fame  and  fortune ! 
And  to  think  that  I  have  an  apparatus  rotting  away  in 
London,  in  a  warehouse,  and  that,  if  you'd  listened  to  me, 
I  should  have  been  at  the  Kolossal  now  .  .  .  and 
covering  you  with  diamonds !" 

"I  like  your  style!"  said  Lily.  "You'd  have  made  me 
break  my  back  in  your  stead !  I  know  you !" 

"Oh,  but  I  shan't  swallow  that,"  said  Trampy,  in  his 
exasperation.  "We  shall  see !  I  have  my  rights.  I  shall 
enforce  them !" 

"Don't  make  a  fool  of  yourself,"  said  Lily.  "When  a 
thing  has  to  be  done,  it  gets  done  without  all  that  talk : 
look  at  Jimmy !" 

"Hang  your  Jimmy !" 

"It's  not  a  question  of  my  Jimmy,"  retorted  Lily,  "but 
of  my  money.  I  should  simply  have  flung  it  away !  You, 
do  a  thing  like  that !  You  risk  your  skin !  Rot !" 

Trampy,  in  his  rage,  would  have  boxed  Lily's  ears,  had 


150  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

it  not  been  for  her  nails,  which  she  held  ready  to  scratch 
his  face,  and  he  went  out  fuming.  He  ran  off  to  the 
agents,  but  there  was  nothing  for  him.  And  yet  Trampy 
knew  or,  at  least,  supposed  that  they  must  want  an  oppo- 
sition show  to  "Bridging  the  Abyss."  They  must,  surely ! 
Why,  everywhere,  in  all  the  great  centers,  every  music- 
hall  had  its  rival  opposite  or  beside  it :  everywhere,  each 
establishment  strove  to  inflict  empty  houses  upon  its  rival 
by  offering  more  sensational  or  more  breakneck  tricks. 
At  the  Kaiserin,  the  rival  of  the  Kolossal,  they  were, 
without  a  doubt,  looking  for  something  to  set  against 
"Bridging  the  Abyss"  and  they  had  nothing,  or  else 
Trampy  would  have  known  it :  among  pros  such  matters 
were  always  known  long  beforehand.  Oh,  Trampy  was 
prepared  to  do  anything  to  escape  his  wife's  sarcasm ! 

And,  one  evening,  behold  Trampy  returning  in  triumph 
to  the  cafe  where  Lily  awaited  him : 

"I  knew  it!"  he  cried.  "I  knew  it  wouldn't  go  like 
that!" 

"Well,  what?"  asked  Lily.  "Have  you  got  a  number 
thirty-seven?  Thirty-eight?  A  fresh  conquest?  Some- 
thing quite  out  of  the  common  ?" 

"Laugh  away,  Lily !  That  son  of  a  gun  shall  hear  me 
talked  about  yet,  by  Jove !  And  everybody  else  will,  too. 
You  must  be  prepared  for  anything,  Lily,  when  you  marry 
an  artiste !" 

"Why,  what's  happened  ?"  asked  Lily,  much  surprised. 

This  had  happened:  the  two  music-halls  had  fought. 
Jimmy,  who  was  unable,  it  seemed,  to  get  London  or 
Paris,  had  offered  his  "Bridging  the  Abyss"  to  the  Kai- 
serin, but  his  price  was  considered  too  high.  From  there 
he  went  to  the  Kolossal  and  made  the  same  proposal. 
Now,  times  were  hard  for  the  music-halls,  sucked  dry  by 


PLAYING  'EM   IN  151 

the  enormous  salaries  that  had  to  be  paid.  The  managers 
were  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  the  presence  of 
the  common  enemy,  the  artiste  and,  more  particularly,  the 
originator  of  sensations,  who  is  indispensable  and  who 
makes  you  an  offer  with  a  pistol  at  your  head,  like  a 
highwayman  demanding  your  money  or  your  life. 

But  a  turn  like  that  meant  an  assured  success ;  and  the 
Kolossal  offered  Jimmy  five  hundred  marks  a  night,  so  as 
to  spike  the  Kaiserin's  guns  by  getting  hold  of  a  unique 
turn  and  one  not  easy  to  replace;  a  piece  of  underhand 
work  involving  two  months'  empty  houses  at  the  Kai- 
serin,  which,  as  it  was,  had  only  a  second-rate  troupe  by 
way  of  "sisters,"  while  at  the  Kolossal  they  had  Roofers 
engaged  by  the  year,  real  ones,  the  complete  dozen, 
words  and  music  guaranteed.  And  now  the  Kolossal 
would  make  huge  money  with  "Bridging  the  Abyss"  and 
sink  its  rival;  it  was  a  master-stroke.  But  they  knew 
everything  at  the  Kaiserin.  The  Kaiserin  also  wanted 
a  "Bridging  the  Abyss."  It  would  have  one,  a  better 
one,  with  a  finer  title:  "Arching  the  Gulf!"  And  they 
would  get  it  for  three  hundred  marks!  And  they  must 
be  ready,  quick,  quick,  before  the  Kolossal,  and  it  was 
just  possible:  they  had  twenty  days  yet;  the  apparatus 
would  be  made;  they  knew  the  plans,  the  dimensions; 
the  house  would  be  fixed  up  accordingly ;  they  must  suc- 
ceed at  all  costs  and  not  let  themselves  be  strangled  with- 
out defense!  It  was  a  struggle  to  the  death!  They 
would  fight  with  corpses,  if  need  be !  Other  people  had 
broken  their  backs  for  them  before  now;  there  would 
be  no  difficulty  in  finding  one  more  to  risk  his  life  six 
times  in  six  seconds  for  three  hundred  marks  a  night. 

And  it  was  at  that  moment  that  Trampy  offered  him- 
self. They  had  heard  his  name : 


152  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"Trampy  Wheel-Pad,  the  tramp  cyclist  with  the  red- 
hot  stove  ?" 

"That's  me,"  said  Trampy. 

And,  full  of  self-assurance,  he  explained  the  object  of 
his  visit: 

"I  was  the  first  to  construct  it ;  I  patented  it  myself  at 
Washington ;  I  will  produce  the  documents !" 

It  will  be  understood  why  Trampy  wore  his  air  of  con- 
quest when  he  returned  home  that  day.  He  had  his  en- 
gagement in  his  pocket !  He  displayed  it  victoriously  to 
Lily,  passed  it  over  her  face,  reveled  in  his  revenge.  At 
last  he  was  going  to  show  Lily  whether  he  was  able  to 
keep  a  wife  or  not ;  and  champagne  suppers  every  even- 
ing, by  Jove,  with  girls — no  damned  lalerperloosers — just 
to  show  her ! 

That  same  evening,  he  left  for  London,  with  an  ad- 
vance from  the  management,  and  came  back  to  Berlin 
with  the  apparatus,  the  whole  set  up  and  repaired  in  a 
week,  a  gang  of  men  working  night  and  day.  Followed 
practice  with  the  rope,  on  a  movable  pulley,  from  early 
dawn,  like  a  man  determined  to  accomplish  his  break- 
neck feat,  alive  or  dead;  for  Trampy  would  have  done, 
no  matter  what,  for  Lily  to  cease  being  "Miss"  Lily,  to 
admit  herself  married  and  married  for  love  and  not  to 
escape  whippings,  to  cease  being  ashamed  of  him,  to 
show  herself  proud  of  him,  on  the  contrary,  especially  be- 
fore Jimmy ! 

Trampy,  in  his  less  enthusiastic  moments,  felt  a  cer- 
tain uneasiness :  Jimmy's  proximity,  his  own  patents  far 
away,  in  America.  But  he  assumed  a  bold  face,  declared 
himself  the  inventor,  practised  unrelentingly,  with  hatred 
of  his  rival  in  his  heart.  This  hatred  seemed  to  increase 
his  powers  of  work.  He  practised,  practised.  He  had  a 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  153 

lively  intelligence,  if  his  heart  was  a  trifle  flabby.  And  he 
was  very  skilful,  besides,  when  he  condescended  to  take 
the  trouble.  He  was  a  quick  worker :  in  less  than  twenty 
days  everything  was  ready,  and  "Arching  the  Gulf" 
sprawled  over  the  hoardings  of  Berlin,  side  by  side  with 
"Bridging  the  Abyss."  One  saw  nothing  else;  and  the 
Kaiserin  opened  its  doors  forty-eight  hours  before  Jimmy. 
It  was  a  huge  success.  Trampy  received  an  ovation 
when,  after  the  release  of  the  terrible  springs  which 
flung  the  bike  from  one  pedestal  to  another,  in  five  sec- 
onds he  fell  on  the  mattresses  outspread  to  receive  him, 
behind  a  cloth. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  Jimmy  was  present  at  the 
show.  He  was  smashed  before  he  had  even  begun! 
There,  before  his  eyes,  was  his  own  invention  worked  by 
another !  He  had  expected  competition,  of  course ;  it  was 
impossible,  he  knew,  to  discover  anything  that  wasn't 
copied  at  once ;  snatchers  of  ideas,  who  prowl  around 
artistes,  plagiarists,  pirates,  swarmed  as  thick  as  any 
other  sort  of  thieves.  And,  as  ill  luck  would  have  it, 
though  his  turn  was  difficult  to  perform,  the  apparatus, 
at  least,  was  simple  to  construct :  four  powerful  springs, 
screwed  down  with  a  jack,  which  the  weight  of  the  leap- 
ing cyclist,  as  he  fell  upon  each  pedestal,  released  one 
after  the  other,  causing  him  to  take  enormous  jumps 
forward.  It  was  an  ideal  breakneck  machine,  easy  to  carry 
about ;  only  the  calculations  had  been  difficult.  They  had 
cost  him  a  lot  of  trouble  to  establish;  and  now  another 
was  profiting  by  them !  Perhaps  some  one  had  patented 
the  invention  before  him !  For  he,  too,  before  showing  it 
in  public,  had  patented  it  in  England  and  Germany ;  and 
his  anger  knew  no  bounds,  his  energy  was  increased  four- 
fold when  he  learned  the  name  of  the  plagiarist :  Trampy 


154  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

again !  Trampy,  who  had  stolen  his  love,  who  had  stolen 
his  Lily  .  .  .  and  who  was  now  stealing  his  idea  .  .  . 
robbing  him  of  the  fruit  of  his  labor !  Jimmy,  in  spite  of 
his  fury,  resolved  to  keep  calm:  the  law  first.  He  was 
protected  by  the  law,  unless — and  that  was  impossible — 
unless  Trampy  had  had  the  same  idea  as  himself  before 
him  and  taken  out  his  patents  before  the  publication  in 
Engineering.  Jimmy  showed  a  prompt  decision,  a  fever- 
ish activity.  First  of  all,  he  must  put  the  law  in  motion, 
bring  an  action  against  Trampy,  telegraph  to  the  patent 
office  at  Washington  to  ascertain  the  date.  Meanwhile,  he 
made  his  first  appearance  on  the  day  fixed  for  it.  His  suc- 
cess was  even  greater  than  Trampy's;  his  leaps  were 
twice  as  wide,  more  in  accordance  with  his  courage. 
The  way  in  which  he  "bridged  the  abyss,"  in  the  huge 
hall  where  he  gave  his  show,  was  enough  to  prove  that 
he  was  the  inventor,  the  creator,  the  great,  typical,  daring 
performer,  who,  disclaiming  death,  marches  to  glory  and 
fortune  even  as  heroes,  flag  in  hand,  rush  to  the  assault 
under  fire. 

It  was  a  bolt  from  the  blue  for  the  Kaiserin  when  the 
little  paper  arrived,  the  injunction  against  "Arching  the 
Gulf."  A  steamer  caught  in  a  cyclone  would  undergo 
much  the  same  disablement,  under  a  sea  sweeping  her 
from  stem  to  stern,  swamping  the  saloons,  drowning  the 
very  rats  in  the  hold.  Jimmy's  active  inquiries  had  not 
taken  long:  telegram  followed  upon  telegram;  the  Brit- 
ish consul  woke  up.  The  law  at  Washington  was  formal 
and  precise:  nothing  could  be  patented  that  had  been 
known,  or  used,  or  published  before  the  patent  was 
applied  for.  Now  the  article  in  Engineering,  of  course, 
appeared  prior  to  the  step  taken  by  Trampy.  And  in  Ger- 
many, also,  Jimmy  won  his  case;  the  court  found  in  favor 


PLAYING  'EM   IN  155 

of  the  absolute  novelty  of  the  invention.  The  Kaiserin 
could  not  give  its  performance  short  of  paying  five  hun- 
dred marks  a  night  to  its  rival,  the  Kolossal.  This  meant 
the  wreck  of  "Arching  the  Gulf;"  and  Trampy  came 
down  with  it.  For  a  few  days,  he  led  a  terrible  life,  a 
desperate  struggle,  made  efforts  in  every  direction;  but, 
at  last,  worried,  hustled,  driven  to  bay,  Trampy  disap- 
peared into  the  darkness,  while  Jimmy,  freed  from  this 
enervating  opposition  and  feeling  sure  of  himself  hence- 
forward, gained  fresh  courage,  added  another  arch  to 
"Bridging  the  Abyss." 

It  was  done,  he  had  made  his  start,  he  had  a  name,  he 
was  the  man  who  draws  crowds;  he  received  brilliant 
proposals  from  all  sides,  from  the  Western  Trust,  among 
others.  He  felt  himself  somebody ;  and  money  also  was 
coming  in.  He  could  at  last  realize  what  he  had  in  his 
head  ...  in  the  absence  of  love  there  would  be  fame 
.  .  .  oh,  something  a  thousand  times  more  sensational 
than  "Bridging  the  Abyss,"  more  modern,  more  scientific, 
something  which  he  confided  to  nobody,  which  he  kept 
locked  up  in  his  brain,  in  his  heart,  like  a  love  passion, 
a  thing  which  would  be  his  alone,  this  time,  which  no  one 
could  take  from  him !  For  it  would  not  be  a  question  of  a 
spring  and  a  click,  only.  The  thing  moved  in  his  breast, 
lived  in  his  brain.  When  he  thought  of  it,  his  cheeks  be- 
came hollow  with  ambition,  his  eyes  lit  up.  He  seemed 
to  tower  over  immense  perspectives;  and,  from  that 
height,  Trampy  appeared  to  him  so  small,  so  small,  so 
really  small  that  he  felt  his  anger  decrease.  And  then 
there  was  Lily !  To  send  Trampy  to  his  wife  with  a  black 
eye  or  a  bloody  nose,  to  turn  the  husband  into  an  object 
of  ridicule  to  his  wife,  that  was  impossible  for  him;  it 
would  have  shown  lack  of  respect  for  Lily,  poor  darling ; 


156  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

he  would  not  humiliate  her  in  her  man !  She  loved  him, 
perhaps,  in  the  illusion  of  her  seventeen  years !  Hurt 
her?  Never !  Jimmy  wiped  the  episode  from  the  slate ; 
hard  as  it  was,  he  forgave  that  highway  robber,  in  the 
name  of  his  dead  love. 

Ah,  if  he  could  have  seen  Lily  when  Trampy  was 
driven  to  confess  his  discomfiture  to  her!  He  would 
have  been  revenged  offhand!  Lily  seethed  with  rage 
against  her  husband,  that  footy  rotter !  What !  Was  that 
his  great  scheme  ?  Did  he  call  that  an  idea  ?  How  often 
had  not  Jimmy  spoken  to  her  about  it!  It  was  pinned 
on  the  wall,  it  lay  about  in  the  Gresse  Street  work-shop 
for  months.  She  remembered  seeing  the  plans,  the  dia- 
grams, the  drawings  in  the  papers.  Jimmy  had  explained 
everything  to  her  at  the  time  when  he  was  still  a  josser. 
And  Trampy  had  stolen  it  from  him,  stolen  it,  stolen  it ! 
Oh,  he  would  make  her  die  of  shame ! 

It  was  a  terrible  dispute,  a  real  "playing  humanity," 
with  threats,  clenched  fists,  broken  crockery  strewing  the 
floor. 

"To  humiliate  me  like  that  before  Jimmy !"  said  Lily, 
furious. 

"Drop  that  about  Jimmy !"  snarled  Trampy,  green  with 
jealousy.  "I  won't  have  you  mention  him !" 

"I  shall  mention  him  if  I  like!  Jimmy  is  a  son  of  a 
gun !  Very  well !  But  he's  a  man !  He's  worth  two  of 
you." 

Trampy  strode  up  to  her  with  his  fist  raised. 
_   "If  you  touch  me,"  cried  Lily,  seizing  the  lamp,  "if 
you  touch  me,  I'll  smash  it  over  your  head !" 


CHAPTER  IV 

When  Trampy  received  the  visit  of  the  Gerichtsdiener, 
with  the  bill  of  costs  to  pay — for  the  Kolossal  sued  the 
Kaiserin  for  damages  and  the  Kaiserin  came  down  upon 
Trampy — when  Trampy  learned  that,  he  became  a 
limp  rag.  Already  he  saw  himself  dragged  before  the 
courts,  his  whole  past  laid  bare :  two  wives  on  his  hands, 
for  all  he  knew ;  Lily  crushing  him  with  her  scorn ;  Jimmy 
triumphant. 

Trampy  had  a  moment  of  real  despair.  Lily  preferred 
him  like  that,  humbled  at  her  feet.  She  seemed  to  un- 
derstand her  husband,  a  man  spoiled  by  easy  conquests, 
a  boozer,  a  rake,  who  had  taken  too  much  upon  himself 
when  he  wedded  a  wife.  Trampy  was  certainly  not  made 
for  marriage :  having  a  wife  was  a  different  thing  from 
having  thirty-six  girls.  His  heart,  weakened  with  pre- 
mature enjoyment,  was  no  longer  made  for  real  love. 
All  this  he  too  now  perceived ;  and,  in  spite  of  himself, 
realizing  his  unworthiness,  he  felt  overcome  by  an  ever- 
increasing  jealousy. 

Those  were  melancholy  weeks  in  the  small  room.  He 
sat  for  hours  brooding  over  his  disgrace.  Lily  silently 
turned  this  time  of  rest  to  account  and  mended  her  cos- 
tumes, sewed  spangles  on  her  bodices,  beside  the  earthen- 
ware stove,  on  which  the  stew  was  bubbling;  and  then 
came  the  meal,  on  the  table  hastily  cleared  of  the  mass 
of  ribbons,  thread  and  needles,  to  make  room  for  the 
plates.  Trampy  choked  as  he  swallowed  that  dinner 

157 


158  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

which  he  had  not  earned,  sighed  sadly  for  the  good  cheer 
of  his  dreams,  the  champagne  suppers  with  girls.  He 
gulped  down  his  meagre  fare  in  silence,  he  who  had 
known  the  gay  junketings,  the  noisy  laughter  and  the 
"Roman  nights !"  To  go  from  there  and  drown  his  sor- 
rows in  the  bar  next  door  was  but  a  step.  And  Trampy 
had  sorrows  outside  his  recent  defeat:  sorrows  which 
were  even  more  bitter.  He  felt  that,  this  time,  he  was 
losing  Lily. 

Lily  was  surrounded  with  sympathy.  When  she  went 
the  round  of  the  agencies,  the  pros  courted  her.  They 
looked  upon  Lily  in  the  light  of  a  wife  tired  of  her  hus- 
band. They  prowled  round  that  possible  prey.  A  Lily 
was  worth  the  having,  meant  an  assured  income  for 
whoever  succeeded  in  winning  her  affections  and  manag- 
ing her  properly:  not  with  brutality,  no,  rather  not; 
home  joys,  like  Mr.  Fuchs !  Who  was  destined  one  day 
to  own  those  full-blown  seventeen  years,  those  twinkling 
legs,  that  lissom  body,  trained  to  spin  round  and  round, 
unerring  and  exact?  What  lucky  dog  would  have  her 
for  himself,  would  succeed  in  making  her  love  him? 
They  pitied  Lily  openly,  to  disgust  her  with  her  husband 
and  hasten  on  the  catastrophe.  Trampy?  He  was  no 
husband  for  her !  They,  ah,  yes,  now  that  was  a  different 
matter!  And  they  talked  of  the  dangers  attendant  upon 
Trampy's  mode  of  life ;  the  impersonator  told  her  of  the 
terrible  diseases  brought  on  by  constant  tippling;  they 
exaggerated  it  all  on  purpose,  amused  themselves  by 
frightening  her ;  until  Lily,  sometimes,  would  look  upon 
herself  as  a  pretty  little  gazelle  chained  to  a  mangy  bear. 

Trampy  suspected  all  this,  having  himself,  in  the  old 
days,  in  the  time  of  his  glory,  been  one  of  those  who 


PLAYING  'EM   IN  159 

hovered  round  wives  ready  for  divorce,  helping  them,  if 
need  be.  He  could  have  smashed  the  face  of  that  green- 
eyed  impersonator.  There  was  also  that  architect,  that 
theater-builder,  Harrasford's  friend:  he  was  passing 
through  Berlin  and  Lily  had  taken  his  fancy  the  other 
evening,  at  the  cafe ;  he  had  patted  her  cheek  gaily : 

"I  knew  you  when  you  were  'that  high.'  You  used 
to  sit  on  my  knee.  How  beautiful  you've  grown !" 

There  appeared  to  be  an  infinity  of  people  who  had 
known  Lily  when  she  was  "that  high."  They  paid  her 
more  and  more  attention  .  .  .  and  then  they  believed 
her  to  be  looked  after  by  Jimmy.  That  again  was  a 
friendship  dating  back  to  her  childhood,  they  said :  Jimmy, 
the  bill-topper.  He,  too,  had  known  her  when  she  was 
"that  high." 

The  greater  part  of  this  talk  reached  Trampy's  ears. 
Oh,  he  could  have  killed  that  Jimmy !  But  he  was  obliged 
to  hold  his  tongue.  Jimmy  had  him  under  his  heel,  with 
that  crushing  lawsuit. 

They  did  not  even  dare  speak  of  it,  so  painful  was  the 
subject.  The  little  table  by  the  earthenware  stove  sepa- 
rated them  like  a  wall;  and  there  was  one  thing  always 
between  them:  Jimmy.  Trampy  never  mentioned  his 
frame  now.  He  would  have  had  too  much  to  say.  .  .  . 
And  there  were  continual  summonses,  always; -and  law- 
yers, always ;  and  costs,  always.  Money  melted  away, 
like  butter  in  the  sun.  Lily  was  tired  of  it ;  and  an  agony 
overcame  her  at  the  thought  of  leading  a  life  like  that 
for  the  rest  of  her  days : 

"Oh,"  she  said,  "he's  taking  the  very  bread  from  our 
mouths,  with  his  lawsuit!  And  I  haven't  a  decent  hat 
to  wear." 


160  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"He'll  drive  us  to  the  workhouse,"  grumbled  Trampy, 
staring  before  him,  with  folded  arms. 

"It's  your  fault!"  Lily  began,  but  soon  stopped:  the 
subject  led  to  a  surfeit  of  quarreling. 

But,  in  her  own  mind : 

"That  son  of  a  gun  of  a  Jimmy!"  she  thought.  "All 
the  same,  who  would  ever  have  believed  it  of  him  ?  Can 
he  guess  that  all  of  this  falls  upon  me  ?" 

"Suppose  you  were  to  go  and  see  him,"  said  Trampy, 
at  his  wits'  end,  one  day  when  he  had  exhausted  himself 
in  stormy  explanations  with  the  manager  of  the  Kaiserin. 

"I  go  and  see  Jimmy?"  exclaimed  Lily.     "What  for?" 

"To  try  and  arrange  things,"  replied  Trampy,  drop- 
ping his  head.  "No  one  but  you  could  ..." 

"I'll  think  about  it,  I'll  see,"  said  Lily. 

But  she  had  to  get  used  by  degrees  to  the  idea  of  going 
and  seeing  that  Jimmy  who  was  now  ruining  her.  A 
strange  curiosity,  nevertheless,  drove  her  toward  that 
conqueror,  once  a  bike-cleaning  workman,  who  was  now 
topping  the  bill  at  Berlin  and  making  as  much  money  by 
himself  as  a  whole  program  put  together.  He  would  re- 
ceive her  kindly,  she  was  sure  of  that.  Oh  and  then  she 
wanted  to  tell  him  that  she  had  had  nothing  to  do  with 
that  business  of  the  patents  .  .  .  that  she  did  not 
approve  of  Trampy's  conduct  .  .  .  !  And  then  he 
could  give  her  news  of  Pa  and  Ma,  as  he  had  come  from 
London,  where  he  must  have  seen  them!  And  she  was 
dying  to  know!  The  idea  was  increasing  with  her  that 
life  with  Trampy  had  become  impossible.  And,  in  case 
she  should  leave  him,  she  dreaded  finding  herself  alone. 
Already  there  were  all  those  offers  being  made  to  her, 
a  married  woman,  driving  her  mad!  She,  Lily  Clifton, 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  161 

was  treated  like  a  "Parisienne" :  she  hated  that  sort! 
To  walk  about  the  stage,  two  by  two,  might  pass ;  but 
it  was  possible  to  go  too  far,  like  the  conductor  of  the 
orchestra,  who,  the  other  day,  tried  to  kiss  her  in  her 
dressing-room,  married  woman  though  she  was!  Then 
what  would  it  be  when  she  traveled  alone !  On  the  conti- 
nent, too!  Oh,  she  would  have  liked  to  be  a  good  little 
wife !  But,  as  that  could  not  be,  better  go  back  to  her  Pa 
and  Ma  and  have  a  home,  a  real  one,  with  a  servant  in  it. 
She  was  yearning  for  a  home.  But  how  would  she  be  re- 
ceived in  that  case?  Would  they  put  the  blame  on  her? 
Had  they  forgiven  her?  Had  she  a  Pa  and  Ma  still? 
That  was  what  she  wanted  to  know. 

Lily  would  have  liked  to  look  handsome  and  elegant 
on  the  day  when  she  went  to  Jimmy,  so  as  to  show  him 
that  he  was  not  the  only  one  who  made  a  lot  of  money ; 
but  she  felt  very  small  and  terribly  excited.  The  hotel 
itself,  the  great  clock,  the  waiters,  everything  made  an 
impression  on  her,  so  different  from  her  boarding-house 
in  the  Akerstrasse.  She  felt  like  running  away  after 
knocking  at  his  door ;  and  Jimmy  opened  it  with  the  pre- 
occupied air  of  a  man  who  is  disturbed  at  an  inconvenient 
moment.  But  suddenly  he  put  out  his  hand  in  hearty 
greeting : 

"Hullo,  Lily !    Come  in." 

Lily  entered  a  bright  sitting-room,  neatly  furnished 
with  a  sofa  and  comfortable  chairs ;  no  bed ;  a  room  which 
served  only  for  that.  She  at  once  felt  more  at  her  ease. 
Jimmy  motioned  her  to  a  seat  near  a  table  covered  with 
papers,  full  of  marks  and  signs  which  she  did  not  under- 
stand, and  books,  rulers  and  compasses.  She  tried  to  be 
simple  and  dignified ;  apologized  for  interrupting  him : 


162  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"Brain-work,  I  see,"  she  said,  pointing  to  the  papers. 
"That's  hard,  too,  I  suppose,"  she  added,  to  say  some- 
thing, for  a  start,  like  talking  about  the  weather. 

"A  matter  of  habit,  like  the  bike,"  said  Jimmy,  in  a 
tone  of  conviction.  "Sit  down,  Lily,  there  in  that  big 
arm-chair ;  you're  not  disturbing  me." 

"  'K  you,"  said  Lily,  sitting  down,  feeling  reassured 
by  his  cordial  welcome  and  thinking  that,  at  least,  he  was 
polite. 

"I  am  glad  to  see  you  again,  Lily,"  Jimmy  went  on, 
taking  a  chair  himself.  "Always  glad  to  see  you.  And 
how  are  you  ?  Keeping  well  ?" 

"  'K  you,"  said  Lily. 

"I'm  very  glad  to  hear  it,"  said  Jimmy,  scrutinizing  Lily 
with  great  kindness  and  trying  not  to  see  her  preoccupied 
expression.  "I  know  what  brings  you  here,  Lily.  You're 
a  dear  little  thing,  a  kid,  eh  ?  A  real  kid  at  heart,  aren't 
you  ?  I  bet  you  I  guess.  I've  come  from  London.  You 
want  to  hear  the  latest  news  of  your  Pa  and  Ma,  eh? 
You're  not  angry  with  them,  I  hope?  Oh,  it  would  be 
wrong  of  you  to  be  angry  with  them  still !  They're  very 
fond  of  you,  you  know.  They  cried  when  you  went  away, 
Lily.  Your  .  .  .  going  away,"  Jimmy  insisted,  with 
a  quaver  in  his  voice,  "was  ...  a  great  blow  .  .  . 
to  them  .  .  .  too." 

"How  do  they  get  on  without  me  ?"  asked  Lily  eagerly, 
not  wishing  to  break  down  and  cry  before  Jimmy.  "Poor 
Pa !  Yes,  he  was  fond  of  me.  He  never  let  me  fall  on 
purpose.  He  did  not  force  me  to  work  when  I  was  ill." 

"Your  Pa!"  Jimmy  broke  in,  glad  of  the  chance  to 
give  a  fresh  turn  to  the  conversation.  "Why,  there's  no 
harm  in  him!  Your  Pa's  an  artiste  in  love  with  his 
art,  that's  all!  I  shouldn't  be  surprised  if  the  troupe 


PLAYING  'EM   IN  163 

made  a  hit  yet.  It's  had  a  success  of  a  sort  already — in 
the  small  halls — at  Maidstone  and  Tunbridge  Wells. 
Your  Pa  just  does  without  you  as  well  as  he  can.  He 


COUSIN  DAISY 

runs  after  his  pupils  all  day  long,  damn  it !"  said  Jimmy, 
with  a  laugh.  "Your  cousin  stars." 

"Who  stars?"  asked  Lily. 

"Your  cousin  Daisy.  She  came  as  soon  as  you  .  .  . 
as  you  went  away  and  offered  to  take  your  place.  Pa 
Clifton  sent  her  to  the  right-about,  treated  her  like  a, 


164  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

.  .  .  like  an  I  don't  know  what,  but  she  returned  to 
the  charge.  She's  doing  very  well  now.  She  tries  to  be 
like  you." 

"No!  Impossible!"  exclaimed  Lily.  "What,  that  fat 
freak?" 

"And  your  Pa  will  succeed,"  Jimmy  hastened  to  add. 
"You'll  see.  You  ought  to  be  proud  of  having  a  Pa  like 
that." 

"Yes,  in  a  sense,"  said  Lily,  who  felt  a  certain  satis- 
faction at  being  the  daughter  of  her  Pa. 

He  was  a  bit  harsh  at  times ;  but  a  man  like  her  Pa,  or 
like  Jimmy,  was  much  better  than  her  loafer  of  a  tramp 
cyclist ! 

"And     .     .     .     Ma?"  asked  Lily. 

"Your  Ma,"  said  Jimmy,  in  a  lower  voice,  "cried  .  .  . 
oh,  how  she  cried  when  she  found  that  you  had  gone !  No 
doubt,  she  exaggerated  any  wrong  she  had  done  you.  It 
seems  she  fell  upon  her  knees  and  prayed  and  asked  for 
forgiveness." 

"Forgiveness?  What  for?  Of  whom?"  Lily  in- 
quired. 

"Why,"  said  Jimmy,  in  a  serious  tone,  "of  whom  do 
you  think  people  ask  forgiveness,  when  they  are  alone, 
on  their  knees?" 

"Oh,"  said  Lily,  greatly  touched,  "I  understand!  So 
they  didn't  put  the  blame  on  me  ?" 

"What  blame?" 

"For  my  marriage,"  said  Lily,  lowering  her  eyes. 

"No  ...  if  you  had  gone  off  to  live  with  him 
.  .  .  oh,  not  you,  not  you,  I  know !"  protested  Jimmy, 
seeing  a  gesture  of  Lily's.  "But  marriage  is  different,  I 
suppose.  You  had  the  right,  you  were  old  enough  to  go 
away  with  the  man  you  loved," 


PLAYING  'EM   IN  165 

Jimmy  turned  pale  as  he  said  this;  but  Lily,  hanging 
her  head  and  red  with  shame,  did  not  notice  it. 

"What!"  said  Jimmy.  "You're  blushing!  Do  you  re- 
gret it?" 

Lily  did  not  reply. 

"Then,"  continued  Jimmy  slowly,  "what  they  said — 
I  wouldn't  believe  it,  but  you  know  they  say  a  lot  of 
things — is  it  true?" 

She  nodded  yes  and  raised  her  eyes  to  him  with  a  sad, 
weary  smile. 

"He  doesn't  love  you?  And  .  .  .  and  .  .  . 
you,  Lily,"  asked  Jimmy,  taking  her  hand  in  his,  "don't 
you  love  him?" 

"Certainly  not !"  said  Lily,  with  such  an  accent  of  con- 
viction and  such  a  look  of  disgust  that  Jimmy  was,  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  delighted  to  the  bottom  of  his  heart 
and  pained  to  the  verge  of  tears. 

Poor  Lily !  He  now  noticed  her  pallor,  the  dark  rims 
round  her  eyes,  that  exquisite  face  refined  by  inmost 
grief.  Lily,  upon  whom,  since  her  visit  to  the  shop  in 
Gresse  Street,  he  had  built  his  hopes  of  happiness!  It 
seemed  to  him  like  yesterday  and  already  it  was  the  dis- 
tant past.  Was  that  what  her  rebellion,  her  bid  for  free- 
dom had  ended  in  ?  Was  that  the  crowning  point  of  her 
hard  life  ?  Lily,  fashioned  to  be  the  companion  of  a  lov- 
ing heart,  was  the  prey  of  a  footy  rotter !  Oh,  if  Jimmy 
had  not  controlled  himself,  if  he  had  not  clenched  his 
teeth,  for  fear  of  talking!  If  he  had  listened  to  his  anger, 
let  loose  the  storm  that  raged  within  him,  shouted  out 
what  he  felt !  But  what  would  be  the  good  of  telling  her 
his  love  ?  Why  add  to  Lily's  sorrows  by  letting  her  know 
what  might  have  been  and  thus  cause  trouble  in  her 
household,  when  he  wished  for  one  thing  only,  Lily's  hap- 


166  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

piness  ?  Suppose  she  did  not  love  her  husband :  Trampy, 
alas,  unworthy  though  he  was,  remained  her  husband, 
nevertheless!  And  there  was  no  hope  of  breaking  the 
chain.  The  letters  from  Denver  and  Houston  were  any- 
thing but  encouraging.  No  proofs,  no  recollections  of 
Trampy's  marriage  over  there.  So  there  seemed  no  way 
out. 

Nor  did  he  wish  to  incense  Trampy's  jealousy.  Lily 
would  have  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  it  .  .  .  as  in  the 
old  days,  with  Ma's  temper.  Oh,  there  was  no  doubt 
about  it:  Jimmy,  to  hold  his  tongue  now,  needed  more 
courage  than  when  risking  his  life  six  times  in  six  sec- 
onds! But  what  was  the  use  of  fighting  against  fate? 
Better  submit,  when  there  was  no  remedy,  and  strive  for 
peace ! 

"Everything  gets  straight  sooner  or  later,"  Jimmy  went 
on.  "Many  lives  that  once  seemed  spoiled  have  become 
quite  endurable.  Time  is  the  great  healer.  Trampy,  no 
doubt,  will  get  over  his  faults.  He  will  learn  to  appre- 
ciate you.  Have  patience.  Don't  exaggerate  your  both- 
ers, Lily.  There  are  others  unhappier  than  yourself. 
You  have  a  claim  to  happiness.  You  will  know  it  yet. 
Just  think.  You're  so  young,  you  have  all  your  life  be- 
fore you." 

"The  simpleton !"  thought  Lily.  "It's  easy  for  him  to 
talk.  But  then  .  .  .  why  was  he  so  jealous  ?  Why 
did  he  tell  Pa  about  me?  But  for  him,  I  should  be  at 
home  now !" 

It  was  certain  that,  notwithstanding  his  kindly  recep- 
tion, Jimmy  now  seemed  to  be  taking  Trampy's  part, 
as  formerly  he  had  sided  with  Pa  and  Ma.  And  he  was 
lalerperlooser  enough  to  ask  Lily  if  her  husband  knew 
that  she  had  come  to  see  him : 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  167 

"I  hope  he  knows,  Lily.  We  must  have  no  secrets: 
did  you  tell  him?" 

"He  sent  me,"  she  said,  resolving1  to  tell  everything 
frankly,  since  that  was  what  she  had  come  for  and  not, 
after  all,  to  talk  about  love  .  .  .  money,  only,  and 
business  ...  it  was  a  question  of  bread  and  butter 
to  her. 

"Ah !    He  did !"  said  Jimmy,  a  little  surprised. 

"Yes,"  said  Lily,  "it's  about  that  lawsuit." 

"Speak  quite  frankly,  Lily.  Tell  me  everything,"  said 
Jimmy,  very  calm. 

"Well,"  said  Lily,  yielding  before  his  air  of  candor, 
"Trampy  is  at  the  end  of  his  tether ;  he  has  no  money" — 
she  colored  up  to  the  eyes — "no  money,  no  work;  the 
law-costs  ..." 

"And  whose  fault  is  that?"  interrupted  Jimmy,  rising 
and  picking  up  a  cigarette,  so  as  to  have  something  to 
fumble  at  with  his  fingers.  "Whose  fault  is  it,  Lily,  if 
not  that  .  .  .  well,  if  not  Trampy's?  Isn't  it  fair 
that  he  should  pay  for  it?  It  would  really  become  too 
easy,  else,  to  steal  other  people's  ideas !  You  know  quite 
well,  Lily — you  saw  it  at  my  place,  on  the  wall — is  it  my 
invention  or  is  it  not  ?  And  here  comes  Trampy,"  he  con- 
tinued, crunching  up  his  cigarette  with  a  nervous  gesture, 
"and  patents  it  .  .  .  as  if  it  were  his  own.  It's  a  bit 
too  much,  you  know !" 

"Jimmy,"  cried  Lily,  starting  up  from  her  chair,  "I 
swear  to  you  that  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  it !  If  I  had 
known,  Jimmy,  I  would  have  stopped  it!  I  call  it  steal- 
ing, as  you  do." 

"Oh,  I'm  quite  sure  of  that,  Lily !  I  never  thought  it 
was  you!  Calm  yourself;  sit  down,  do,"  said  Jimmy, 
relieved  at  the  sight  of  Lily's  indignation,  as  she  stood 


168  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

before  him  with  blazing  eyes  and  her  face  crimson  with 
shame. 

"Important  tricks  like  that!"  went  on  Lily,  sitting 
down  again.  "No,  those  have  no  right  to  be  copied.  It's 
brain-work.  You  designed  it  yourself." 

"Yes,  but  about  the  present,"  said  Jimmy, -with  a  se- 
rious air.  "I  can't  give  in  to  Trampy.  I'm  bound  to  de- 
fend myself.  You  came  to  see  me  about  my  action, 
Lily.  I  can't  say  anything  on  the  subject.  It's  .  .  . 
Trampy's  business,  I  suppose !  Why,  what  would  you  do 
in  my  place,  Lily  ?" 

"I  should  do  as  you're  doing,  Jimmy,  you're  perfectly 
right,"  said  Lily,  very  low,  without  raising  her  head. 
"But  couldn't  one  come  to  terms  .  .  .  avoid  a  law- 
suit .  .  .  and  not  waste  all  that  money  on  jossers? 
What  do  you  gain  by  it  yourself?  We  can't  pay  up, 
Jimmy :  those  costs  are  breaking  us." 

"What  do  you  mean  by  'us'  ?" 

"Trampy  isn't  working,"  continued  Lily.  "He  hasn't 
done  anything  for  a  long  time." 

"But  then,"  asked  Jimmy,  stopping  in  front  of  her, 
"how  does  he  live?" 

"I  ...  I'm  earning  money,"  explained  Lily, 
blushing,  ashamed  to  own  her  distress. 

Oh,  it  was  hard  for  her,  Lily  Clifton,  to  have  no  money 
and  to  confess  it  to  Jimmy,  that  josser,  who  was  mak- 
ing his  five  hundred  marks  a  day !  Jimmy  saw  her  before 
him,  huddled  in  her  chair  .  .  .  her  faded  hat,  her 
mean  gown.  He  took  in  everything  at  a  glance.  Poor 
Lily,  who  used  to  dream  of  dresses,  to  be  reduced  to  that ! 
Then  he  understood.  Pity  moved  him  at  the  sight  of  that 
poor  Lily.  It  was  all  very  well  for  him  to  say,  just  now, 
"Business  is  business,"  and  to  ask,  "What  would  you  do 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  169 

in  my  place?"  He  knew  what  he  would  do.  A  lawsuit 
was  not  a  question  of  sentiment,  everybody  knew  that; 
but  still,  it  was  no  longer  between  men.  .  .  . 

"Listen,  Lily,"  he  said,  putting  his  hand  kindly  on  her 
shoulder,  "if  all  this  is  to  fall  upon  you,  we  must  see  how 
we  can  arrange  matters.  Sorry  you  didn't  come  sooner ; 
I  don't  want  to  add  to  your  burdens,  Lily,  heaven  knows 
I  don't !  I  never  thought  of  that.  I  ought  to  have  sus- 
pected, perhaps.  However,  I  will  withdraw  the  case. 
I'll  manage.  And  the  costs  .  .  .  well,  I'll  pay  them 
myself,  if  necessary,  for  you,  Lily,  for  you;  because  I 
knew  you  when  you  were  'that  high'  .  .  .  no,  not 
quite  so  small;  how  old  were  you?  Thirteen  .  .  . 
and  such  a  little  thing,  such  a  dear  little  wee  thing.  Do 
you  remember  when  I  made  night  and  day  in  your  cabin, 
by  just  touching  my  levers  ?  And  then  it  seems  to  me  that 
I  always  knew  you :  in  Mexico,  in  India,  in  South  Africa, 
at  the  time  of  the  elephants  and  the  tiny  birds.  And  then 
later,  that  other  Lily,  the  London  one :  the  one  of  only  a 
few  months  ago.  The  one  for  whom  ..."  continued 
Jimmy,  in  a  voice  smothered  with  emotion.  "The  Lily  of 
Rathbone  Place.  The  Lily  of  Gresse  Street.  That  little 
toque,  which  suited  you  so  well  and  which  you  complained 
of  ...  you  poor  little  Lily!  .  .  .  You  poor 
silly  little  thing!  There,  go  home  now  and  make  your 
mind  easy,  as  far  as  I'm  concerned,  Lily.  None  of  your 
troubles  shall  come  from  me.  Besides,  as  they  say,  a  bad 
settlement  is  better  than  the  best  lawsuit.  I'm  doing  it 
for  your  sake.  Well,  is  that  all  right  ?" 

"Oh,  how  kind  you  are !"  she  said,  raising  her  eyes  to 
him,  with  a  tear  in  them.  "Why,  Jimmy,  you're  not  so 
bad,  after  all !" 

"Pooh !"  said  Jimmy,  lighting  a  cigarette.  "I'm  no  bet- 


170  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

ter  than  most,  Lily,  and  no  worse.  Flesh  and  blood,  like 
the  rest.  And,  besides,  for  you,  Lily  ...  If  ever  you 
need  me,  Lily,  if  I  can  be  of  any  use  to  you  .  .  ." 

"For  me,"  thought  Lily,  as  she  returned  home,  "for 
me.  Ah,  if  I  had  known!  Ah,  when  I  think  that  he, 
too,  wanted  to  marry  me,  what  a  fool  I  was!"  she  said, 
with  a  sigh. 

She  still  felt  in  her  own  palm  the  gentle,  manly  pres- 
sure of  Jimmy's  hand.  She  still  heard  the  kind  words 
with  which  he  had  comforted  her  on  the  threshold.  Good- 
ness, how  happy  she  would  have  been  with  a  man  like 
him!  Her  ill-will  disappeared.  He  was  no  longer  a 
cur,  that  josser,  but  a  gentleman,  rather,  a  brother,  a 
friend.  .  .  .  And  she  was  proud,  also,  that  Jimmy, 
who  was  so  busy  and  making  such  a  lot  of  money,  had 
promised  to  come  and  applaud  her,  one  of  these  even- 
ings, at  her  theater,  at  Kleim's  Garden,  before  his  own 
turn  at  the  Kolossal.  Oh,  wouldn't  she  work  hard  that 
night!  She  would  do  all  her  tricks!  She  was  bent  on 
pleasing  him.  And  how  vulgar  and  common  Trampy 
appeared  in  comparison.  However,  there  was  no  help 
for  it  now;  and  Lily  hastened  home  to  bring  him  the 
good  news.  ...  In  any  case,  Trampy  wrould  be 
grateful  to  her  for  what  she  had  done  for  him.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  had  cost  her  an  effort  to  go  and  pay 
this  visit. 

She  happened  to  run  up  against  Trampy  coming  out  of 
the  bar,  where,  according  to  his  custom,  he  had  been 
drowning  his  cares.  He  had  a  moment  of  delight  on 
learning  the  result  of  the  visit,  but,  mad  with  jealousy, 
at  once  adopted  a  lofty  tone,  so  as  not  to  have  to  thank 
her: 


P  L  A  Y  I  N  G  'E  M    I N  171 

"I  knew  he  would  knuckle  under!"  he  said,  without 
looking  at  Lily.  "The  braggart !  He  prefers  a  settlement, 
eh  ?  And  quite  right  too !  He  knows  he's  in  the  wrong. 
He's  retreating,  he's  afraid." 

"Afraid  of  what  ?"  asked  Lily,  bewildered. 

"Afraid  of  me.  He  knows  it  won't  pay  to  try  my 
patience  too  far !" 

"Afraid?  Jimmy?"  said  Lily,  indignant  at  all  that 
foolery.  "Do  you  think  he's  done  that  because  he's 
afraid?" 

"And  for  what  other  reason  would  he  have  given  in  so 
soon?" 

"He  did  it  to  please  me,  he  did  it  for  me,  damn  it,  for 
me!"  said  Lily.  "You're  rid  of  your  lawsuit:  you  ought 
to  talk  differently  and  thank  me !" 

"And  why  should  he  do  it  to  please  you?  What  is 
there  between  you?"  asked  Trampy,  looking  her  in  the 
face. 

"You're  drunk!"  said  Lily  furiously,  with  her  hand 
ready  to  scratch. 

"No  scenes  in  the  street!"  said  Trampy.  "We'll  go 
into  this  at  home  ..." 

"Then  I  shan't  come  in!"  said  Lily,  abruptly  turning 
her  back  on  him.  "I'm  going  to  the  theater !" 

She  had  nothing  to  do  on  the  stage;  only  the  idea  of 
being  alone  in  the  room  with  Trampy  seemed  intolerable 
to  her.  At  the  least  discussion,  Lily  felt  it,  she  would 
have  thrown  the  lamp  at  his  head,  so  great  was  her  indig- 
nation at  his  insolence ! 

She  was  boiling  over  with  anger  when  she  reached  the 
theater.  There  were  people  practising;  it  was  the  time 
for  it.  Lily  went  up  to  her  dressing-room,  shifted  things 
in  her  trunk,  anyhow,  for  something  to  do.  The  idea  that 


172  THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

her  husband  thought  her  capable  of  anything  wrong  made 
her  angry.  Oh,  to  get  a  divorce,  to  part  from  him !  As 
this  could  not  go  on  for  ever,  it  might  as  well  be  done  at 
once ;  but  it  would  be  better  if  there  were  no  fault  on  her 
part.  A  divorce,  yes ;  but  with  the  honors  on  her  side ;  a 
divorce  in  her  favor!  Patience,  the  opportunity  would 
come!  It  ought  to  be  quite  easy,  with  the  girls  whom 
Trampy  beguiled,  the  love  letters  which  he  received,  to 
catch  him  in  the  act,  cover  him  with  ridicule,  get  the  best 
of  him.  Oh,  if  she  only  could !  To  be  a  poor  little  victim, 
how  touching!  A  dear  little  outraged  wife! 

"You  fool,  if  I  catch  you !"  she  said. 

Then  another  idea  passed  through  her  brain.  Oh,  if 
it  were  true !  She  would  have  danced  for  joy !  Trampy 's 
marriage  in  America. 

"Is  it  true?  Is  it  true?  God  above,  grant  that  it  be 
true !" 

It  was  possible.  Already,  a  few  days  before,  the  Jim 
Crows  who  hovered  round  her  had  talked  about  it,  in 
covert  words,  in  the  hope  of  making  things  worse.  There 
must  be  some  truth  in  it.  There  was  so  much  news  go- 
ing from  mouth  to  mouth :  Lillian,  Edith  and  Polly  were 
the  rage  in  Chicago.  .  .  .  That  poor  boy-violinist: 
at  Budapest,  the  stuffed  seat  to  his  trousers  had  slipped 
from  its  place  and  allowed  the  dog's  teeth  to  reach  the 
living  flesh ;  he  had  had  to  spend  a  week  in  bed  with  poul- 
tices. .  .  .  Harrasford  was  contemplating  a  theatri- 
cal trust  on  the  Continent,  planning  a  model  music-hall 
in  Paris.  .  .  .  There  were  Jimmy's  successes,  his 
ambitions.  .  .  .  Amid  all  this  news,  to  which  Lily 
listened,  sometimes  absent-mindedly,  sometimes  with  in- 
terest, among  these  adventures  dating  from  everywhere 
— names  which  she  greeted  like  old  acquaintances,  with  a 


PLAYING    'EM    IN  173 

little  nod:  "Denver?  Yes,  I  know;  a  big  flat  stage. 
Mexico?  I  remember!" — among  all  those  tales,  Lily 
pricked  her  ears  when  she  heard  the  name  of  Ave  Maria 
coupled  with  Trampy's.  She  had  a  vague  recollection  of 
Ave  Maria's  flight,  after  her  departure  from  Mexico; 
was  it  with  Trampy?  Were  they  really  married  then? 
Oh,  if  it  were  only  true !  God  above,  grant  that  it  were 
true! 

Lily,  haunted  by  this  idea  of  a  divorce  which  would  set 
her  free,  had  rummaged  in  Trampy's  trunk,  among  his 
programs  and  posters.  It  was  full  of  letters,  photographs 
of  girls  in  outrageous  hats,  in  tucked-up  skirts,  in  tights, 
with  inscriptions.  All  this  dated  back  to  before  the  mar- 
riage, a  collection  of  treasures  which  he  had  not  had  the 
courage  to  destroy.  She  had  hoped  to  find  some  proof, 
some  clue ;  but  no,  there  was  nothing  serious  in  it.  Lily 
did  not  give  up,  for  all  that ;  on  the  contrary.  After  the 
visit  to  Jimmy,  which  made  Trampy  so  meanly  jealous, 
she  lost  no  opportunity  of  inquiring.  But  Martello  him- 
self, the  father,  never  had  news  of  his  daughter.  He 
hadn't  heard  for  ever  so  long ;  and  it  was  to  no  avail  that 
Lily  asked  about  Ave  Maria,  the  one  who  ran  away  with 
a  man,  a  great  artiste ;  she  always  received  the  same  reply : 

"Ave  Maria?  Don't  know  the  name.  Ave  Maria? 
Haven't  seen  her  since  ..." 

But  Jimmy,  always ;  Jimmy  here,  Jimmy  there ;  they 
talked  about  him  all  the  time :  his  ideas ;  something  new 
he  had  invented ;  something  no  one  had  ever  seen :  much 
cleverer  than  "Bridging  the  Abyss,"  it  seemed;  but  no- 
body knew  what. 

"I  know!"  said  Lily,  with  a  well-informed  air  and 
very  proud  of  knowing  Jimmy  and  of  letting  people 
think 


174.  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"Do  you  know  Jimmy?" 

"Ever  since  I  was  that  high,"  answered  Lily.  "He 
used  to  hold  me  on  his  knees." 

"And  what  is  his  new  trick?" 

"I'm  not  allowed  to  tell.    He  asked  me  not  to  say." 

Everybody  praised  her  for  her  discretion.  The  sym- 
pathy with  which  she  was  surrounded  increased. 

"Jimmy,"  they  hinted.  "Now  there's  a  fellow  you 
ought  to  have  married,  instead  of  your  ..." 

"Not  a  word  against  my  husband,"  she  said,  like  a  good 
and  devoted  little  wife.  "I  won't  have  him  insulted." 

That  did  not  prevent  her  from  laughing  with  her 
friends.  She  felt  a  need  of  forgetting,  or  she  would  have 
died  of  boredom,  with  a  husband  like  that.  She  was 
heavy  at  heart,  sometimes.  She  was  a  woman,  not  an 
icicle.  She  felt  herself  made  for  love.  She  was  flesh 
and  blood,  like  Jimmy.  She  would  have  liked  some  one 
to  console  her,  to  talk  softly  to  her,  as  Glass-Eye  Maud 
used  to  do.  There  were  plenty  willing  to  play  the  part 
of  Glass-Eye  Maud,  no  doubt:  the  female-impersonator, 
for  instance,  with  the  green  eyes.  Oh,  she  would  have 
liked  to  be  hugged,  kissed  full  on  the  mouth,  or  else 
stroked  and  petted  gently !  No  home,  no  happiness ;  mar- 
riage without  love ;  that  was  her  life  henceforth.  Those 
stage  friendships  were  a  relief. 

The  Bambinis  romped  with  her.  She  loved  their 
gaiety,  liked  to  touch  their  sturdy  little  limbs.  That 
evening,  Lily,  who  was  ready  for  her  performance  early, 
was  having  fun  with  them.  Dressed  in  her  pink  tights, 
she  looked  like  a  blithe  nymph  playing  with  rollicking 
cupids. 

"What  a  charming  group!"  said  a  voice  behind  her. 
"If  I  were  a  painter,  Lily,  I  would  do  you  like  that !" 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  175 

It  was  Jimmy,  who  had  come  to  see  her  on  the  stage,  as 
he  had  promised. 

"Am  I  spoiling  your  game  ?"  he  asked.  "It's  so  pretty ! 
It  makes  me  want  to  kiss  the  lot  of  you !" 

"Well,  booby!"  said  Lily,  all  excited  and  laughing. 
"Why  don't  you?  You  daren't!" 

"I  daren't!  I'll  show  you  whether  I  dare  .  .  . 
and  .  .  .  I'm  stronger  than  I  look !" 

And  thereupon  he  caught  hold  of  Lily  and  lifted  her 
like  a  feather — Lily,  all  taken  aback,  had  not  time  to  say 
"Oof!"  so  great  was  her  surprise — and  Jimmy  crossed 
the  whole  stage  with  Lily  in  his  arms,  shouting  to  the 
manager : 

"Look  what  a  dear  little  baby  I've  found!  Isn't  she 
sweet,  eh?" 

And  then,  in  the  wings,  he  gave  her  a  good  big  kiss 
on  the  cheek  before  putting  her  down. 

The  people  around  them  laughed,  applauded  that  stage 
joke: 

"Jimmy,  her  old  friend,"  they  said,  "knew  her  when 
she  was  that  high." 

Lily  was  very  proud  of  it.  And,  a  few  minutes  after, 
when  he  had  left  her  to  take  a  seat  in  front,  Lily  jumped 
into  the  saddle  and  rode  round  and  round,  without  a  hitch, 
smiling  to  the  audience,  smiling  to  Jimmy  in  a  front  box, 
Jimmy  to  whom  she  was  grateful  for  coming  to  see  her : 
a  famous  bill-topper  putting  himself  out  for  her  .  • .  . 
before  everybody !  She  was  faultless  that  evening,  did  a 
dozen  twirls  on  the  back-wheel,  made  a  record,  was  grand. 

Trampy,  meanwhile,  was  waiting  for  Lily  outside,  in 
the  passage  leading  to  the  stage-door.  He  had  not  seen 
Jimmy  kiss  Lily,  but  he  saw  him  carry  her  across  the 
stage,  just  as  he  was  coming  on  himself,  so  he  had  turned 


176  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

and  hurried  out  to  avoid  scandal  .  .  .  giving 
way  to  his  wife,  who  worked  while  he  did  not.  He 
had  gone  out  at  once,  time  to  run  to  the  bar  and  drown 
two  or  three  sorrows,  and  he  was  waiting  for  her  now, 
without  paying1  any  attention  to  the  girls  passing.  As 
soon  as  he  saw  Lily,  he  seized  her  by  the  arm : 

"I've  had  enough  of  this,"  he  said.  "I  saw  you,  you 
and  your  Jimmy!  You  can't  deny  it  this  time !" 

"Oh,  Trampy,  don't  insult  me  like  that!"  protested 
Lily.  "Why  do  you  always  say  'my'  Jimmy?  One  can 
have  a  laugh  and  a  joke  on  the  stage  without  meaning 
wrong,  you  know  one  can.  Besides,  if  you  didn't  like  to 
see  him  carry  me  in  his  arms,  you  ought  to  have  smashed 
his  face,  without  so  much  talk." 

"I  didn't  want  to  make  a  fuss." 

"You  were  afraid  to.  You're  afraid  of  him,  that's 
what  you  are !" 

"Stop  jeering  at  me!"  said  Trampy,  shaking  her  vio- 
lently. "You're  dragging  me  in  the  mud ;  it's  like  those 
whippings  of  yours!  I'm  tired  of  the  affronts  you  put 
upon  me!  You  ought  to  have  married  your  Jimmy  and 
left  me  in  peace." 

"I  can't  say,"  sneered  Lily,  "that  I  remember  running 
after  you!" 

"That  Jimmy !"  repeated  Trampy.  "I'll  kill  that  fellow 
like  a  dog !  If  I  don't  do  it  now,  I  will  later,  in  a  year,  in 
a  hundred  years,  if  necessary.  I'll  kill  him  like  a  dog!" 

Lily  gave  a  little  laugh  as  she  went  out,  followed  by 
Trampy.  She  did  not  wish,  in  that  lobby,  before  the 
people  passing,  to  look  like  a  woman  insulted  by  her  hus- 
band. She  laughed  bravely,  as  she  used  to,  on  the  stage, 
with  Ma,  in  the  days  of  the  great  smackings.  To  see  her 


P  L  A  Y  I  N  G  'E  M    I N  177 

laugh,  one  would  have  thought  that  Trampy  was  telling 
her  a  story  ;  and  he  repeated : 

"I'll  kill  him  like  a  dog,  like  a  dog!" 

"Pooh !"  said  Lily,  who  knew  Trampy.  "You  talk  too 
much  to  act." 

"We  shall  see.    Where's  your  Jimmy  hiding?" 

"You'd  be  nicely  caught,  if  you  met  him,"  said  Lily, 
who  had  just  noticed  Jimmy  leaving  the  music-hall  to  go 
to  the  Kolossal :  "there  he  is,  behind  you."  .  .  . 

"What's  that?  Don't  you  try  to  get  at  me!"  said 
Trampy. 

"I  tell  you,  he's  behind  you,  damn  it !  Turn  round  and 
you'll  see  ...  if  you  have  eyes  to  see  with." 

Trampy  turned  round,  half-reluctantly :  he  didn't  like 
those  jokes,  but  he  didn't  wish  to  seem  afraid. 

"Where  ?    Where  do  you  see  Jimmy  ?"  he  grumbled. 

"There,  in  front  of  you,"  insisted  Lily,  pointing  with 
her  finger  and  pushing  him  by  the  shoulder.  "Off  you 
go!" 

There  was  no  drawing  back.  He  marched  straight  up 
to  Jimmy,  who  did  not  even  recognize  him  and  who 
stopped  politely.  But  Trampy  had  time  for  reflection,  no 
doubt:  a  clearer  perception  of  professional  brotherhood. 
Better,  after  all,  to  remain  friends  .  .  .  among  art- 
istes. And,  when  he  stood  before  him : 

"H'm,  h'm.  Have  you  got  a  light  about  you,  Jimmy? 
Give  us  a  match,"  said  Trampy,  taking  a  cigar  from  his 
pocket. 


CHAPTER  V 

It  stifled  Lily,  for  the  moment.  She  would  rather  have 
received  twenty  "contracts"  with  the  steel  buckle  than 
see  that  cowardice  in  her  husband.  She  had  her  Pa's 
blood  in  her,  damn  it! 

"What !"  she  thought.  "He  believes  me  to  misconduct 
myself  with  Jimmy,  and  he  is  too  much  of  a  coward  to 
object!" 

But  there  was  nothing  to  be  done.  Trampy  was  as 
incapable  of  anger  as  of  love.  All  those  years  of  a  low 
life  had  degraded  him  to  that  point.  And  Trampy  had 
even  lost  the  right  to  bear  Jimmy  a  grudge,  made  as 
though  he  had  forgotten  everything,  said  that,  after  all, 
it  was  much  better  to  be  friends.  And  all  this  under  Lily's 
critical  eye ! 

Jimmy!  To  be  obliged  to  look  pleasant  at  Jimmy! 
It  gave  him  a  lump  in  his  throat.  Fortunately,  he  had 
the  others,  the  crowd  of  assiduous  pros  who  thronged 
round  his  wife.  Against  those  he  gave  free  scope  to  his 
jealousy,  and  showed  himself  as  strict  with  the  rest  as 
he  had  been  accommodating  with  Jimmy.  He  meant  to 
keep  an  eye  on  his  wife : 

"A  married  woman,  on  the  stage,  alone !  I  won't  have 
any  more  of  that !" 

He  hit  upon  a  contrivance  to  be  always  with  her:  he 
would  be  her  "comic."  It  was  a  new  system  which  had 

178 


PLAYING  'EM   IN  179 

come  into  fashion :  the  most  plastic  performances  spoiled 
by  the  juxtaposition  of  their  caricatures;  acrobats,  Olym- 
pian gods,  parodied  by  a  merry-andrew  in  a  ridiculous 
coat:  just  as  though  Nunkie  Fuchs,  for  instance,  had 
taken  it  into  his  head  to  appear  with  his  Three  Graces  and 
mimic  their  tricks,  kicking  about  at  the  end  of  a  wire  with 
his  fat,  fatherly  paunch  and  his  round,  silly  face. 

And  Trampy,  riding  behind  Lily,  would  simply  give  a 
parody  of  her  tricks ;  it  meant  little  work  to  him  and  was 
as  good  a  way  as  another  of  going  on  the  stage  with 
her  and  establishing  his  title  to  her  work  and  her  sal- 
ary. .  .  . 

And  off  they  went  again,  with  the  basket  trunk,  and  the 
bikes ;  and  on  the  stage,  every  night,  Lily,  looking  like  a 
goddess,  and  Trampy,  dressed  in  rags,  went  through  their 
tricks  and  smiled  .  .  .  applause  for  her,  always ;  none 
for  him,  ever.  Lily  wore  a  very  sad  look  in  consequence, 
when  they  returned  to  the  wings:  a  poor  little  wife,  so 
sorry  for  her  husband ;  but  she  triumphed  at  the  bottom 
of  her  heart,  while  Trampy  turned  green  with  spite.  He 
was  furious  with  Lily :  tried  to  make  her  fall,  pushed  her 
in  turning;  but  Lily  was  too  clever  and  sat  as  firmly  on 
her  bike  as  Ave  Maria  walked  her  slack-wire,  when  the 
brother  used  to  shake  it  on  purpose,  whip  in  hand  and 
snarling  as  if  to  bite. 

Oh,  if  Lily  had  not  made  efforts  to  be  a  good  little  wife ! 
Trampy  was  becoming  unbearable.  She  posed  as  the  poor 
little  thing,  despised,  deceived  and  betrayed  by  her  hus- 
band ;  she  loved  to  hear  people  tell  her  so,  called  them  to 
witness  and  continued,  but  without  result,  to  make  in- 
quiries about  Ave  Maria. 

And  there  were  everlasting  scenes  at  home.  Lily  had 
enough  of  it,  more  than  enough  of  it  J  She  had  even  de- 


180  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

cided  to  go  away,  to  return  to  London ;  but,  worn  out 
with  worry,  she  had  to  take  to  her  bed,  with  a  high  fever. 
It  was  the  finishing  stroke:  no  work, — all  the  savings 
gone.  .  .  . 

Trampy,  fortunately,  found  an  engagement: 
"It's  all  right,  the  neighbors  will  look  after  you,"  he 
said,  as  he  took  his  leave.  "A  man's  duty  is  to  see  that 
his  wife  doesn't  starve,  eh,  darling?  I'm  going  to  make 
money,  too,  and  I'll  bring  you  heaps  when  I  come  back ; 
and  I'll  send  you  some.  That's-  the  sort  of  man  I  am. 
I  don't  talk  of  'my  money !'  " 

Lily  was  left  alone  in  Berlin. 

Generally,  she  hated  the  hotels  frequented  by  artistes, 
but  she  was  very  glad  to  be  in  one  this  time.  She,  poor 
little  broken-down  thing,  was  not  left  to  the  care  of  a 
common  servant;  she  had  nice,  kind  nurses.  .  .  .  And 
she  had  no  lack  of  friends  who  took  interest  in  her, 
very  sincerely,  for  that  matter,  for  she  was  a  favorite 
with  all  of  them,  that  pretty  Miss  Lily,  who  would  soon 
be  free.  .  .  . 

Lily  let  herself  be  coddled.  Pending  the  arrival  of 
the  money  which  Trampy  was  to  send,  she  wanted  for 
nothing,  especially  in  the  way  of  luxuries:  chocolates, 
sweets,  flowers,  they  brought  her  everything.  Her 
friends  passing  through  Berlin,  the  impersonator,  the 
Paras,  many  others,  hearing  that  she  was  ill,  came  to  see 
her,  treated  her  as  a  lady,  cried  out  how  well  she  was 
looking,  how  pretty  she  was  and  how  it  suited  her  to  be 
ill  in  bed. 

Lily  thought  that  very  nice,  put  on  a  languid  air,  like  a 
poor  little  jaded  thing  that  had  got  out  of  gear : 

"I  shall  die  of  overdoing  it,  I  know  I  shall,"  she  said, 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  181 

"I've  been  at  the  bike  ever  since  I  was  that  high" — raising 
her  hand  twelve  inches  above  the  bed — "and  my  heart's 
worn  out  by  the  hard  work.  My  knees,  too.  Sit  down 
there  on  the  basket  trunk.  You  at  the  foot  of  the  bed. 
Have  a  chocolate." 

Then  she  turned  over  in  her  sheets,  which  molded  her 
firm,  plump  shape,  took  a  bag  of  sweets  from  the  chair 
beside  her  and  offered  it  round.  Poor  little  martyr,  she 
had  been  forbidden  them  by  the  doctor,  because  of  a 
cough.  .  .  .  But  she  took  them  all  the  same,  merely 
for  the  sake  of  taking  them,  with  a  graceful  movement, 
her  bare  arm  outstretched,  her  wrist  making  a  supple 
curve,  like  a  swan's  neck,  as  she  dipped  her  pretty  hand 
into  the  bag. 

In  addition  to  her  regular  friends,  such  as  the  imper- 
sonator or  the  Paras,  others,  the  people  staying  in  the 
hotel,  would  tap  discreetly  at  the  glass  door  between  her 
room  and  the  passage,  come  in  on  tiptoe,  speak  in  a 
whisper. 

"What  nonsense !"  Lily  would  say.  "I'm  not  dead  yet, 
you  know !" 

And  she  laughed,  and  "Ugh!  Ugh!"  a  cough  or  so, 
a  matter  of  lifting  her  embroidered  handkerchief  to  her 
mouth,  a  favorite  gesture.  And  there  were  stories  from 
all  parts,  the  cackle  of  the  profession.  The  Paras  were 
living  together  now,  as  they  explained  to  her.  The  par- 
rots ?  No  go ;  given  them  up ;  one  had  its  neck  wrung  by 
a  monkey  in  Chicago;  another  died  of  consumption  at 
Stockholm ;  the  rest  of  the  troupe  sold  to  the  stage-door- 
keepers of  the  different  variety-theaters.  His  sight  was 
beginning  to  fail.  She  wanted  smartness;  wasn't — how 
should  he  put  it?  The  husband  looked  for  a  word — 


182  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

wasn't  "Tottie"  enough.  However,  they  managed  some- 
how, as  "eccentric  duetists."  Lily  thought  that  very  nice, 
those  two  talents  combined,  very  original ;  but  could  they 
give  her  any  news  of  Ave  Maria  ...  a  great  artiste 
.  .  .  on  the  wire?  .  .  . 

If  ever  Lily  might  have  hoped  to  receive  news  of  Ave 
Maria,  it  was  during  this  illness,  from  the  artistes  who 
visited  her,  on  their  way  from  anywhere  to  God  knows 
where.  Lily  had  news  of  everybody :  of  Mirzah,  the  white 
elephant,  who  had  to  be  pole-axed  for  killing  his  keeper ; 
of  Captain  North's  seals ;  of  the  Three  Graces,  who  were 
doing  triumphantly  in  England ;  of  Poland,  the  Parisi- 
enne,  now  starring  at  Bill  and  Boom's.  Tom  was  talked 
about:  biceps  like  thighs,  now:  a  horn-pipe  danced  on 
the  hands.  She  had  news  of  the  Pawnees,  of  the 
Hauptmanns.  Roofer  was  sending  out  four  new  troupes, 
to  Canada,  Australia,  India,  Cape  Colony:  the  Greater- 
England  Girls.  She  had  news  of  the  New  Zealanders 
and  of  her  cousin  Daisy,  who  seemed  to  find  the  star 
business  jolly  hard  work: 

"The  wind-bag!"  said  Lily. 

They  talked  of  Jimmy,  of  dogs,  cats  and  monkeys  and 
of  Tom  Grave  and  Butt  Snyders,  those  great  breakneck 
acrobats :  they  talked  of  one  and  all,  but  not  a  word  of 
Ave  Maria.  They  knew  her  by  reputation,  as  one  who 
had  been  through  the  mill,  more  than  Lily  had,  as  Lily 
modestly  admitted. 

"Darling,"  said  the  impersonator  affectionately,  "don't 
bother  about  that  Ave  Maria  of  yours.  I'm  jealous.  Be 
mine,  darling !  How  well  we  two  should  get  on  together, 
eh,  Lily?" 

"Hands   off!"   said   Lily.     "Be   good    .    .    .    there 


P  L  A  Y  I  N  G  'E  M    I  N  183 

.  .  .  like  that  .  .  .  down  by  your  sides  .  .  . 
or  you'll  get  a  smacking !" 

Concerts  were  got  up  for  Lily's  amusement.  Sketch- 
comedians  pulled  their  faces:  a  musician  twanged 
his  banjo.  At  other  times,  by  closing  her  eyes,  Lily 
could  have  imagined  herself  in  an  aviary:  the  Whis- 
tling Wonder  imitated  the  nightingale,  the  thrush,  the 
lark.  Another,  an  equilibrist,  showed  her  how,  when 
he  was  obliged  to  stay  in  bed  with  a  broken  leg  and  had 
nobody  to  wait  on  him,  he  used  to  wait  on  himself  by 
going  round  the  room  on  his  hands  .  .*  .  like  that. 
Lily  was  given,  for  nothing,  a  performance  which  was 
worth  a  whole  music-hall  program.  To  put  everybody  at 
their  ease,  Lily  told  them  to  smoke,  took  a  puff  or  two  at 
a  cigarette  herself — "Ugh !  Ugh !" — almost  choked.  .  .  . 

They  amused  themselves,  among  themselves,  free  from 
any  constraint  due  to  the  presence  of  jossers.  Lily  joked 
with  them  as  she  used  to  do  with  the  apprentices  in  the 
mornings,  when  they  showed  one  another  their  bruises  of 
the  day  before.  She  made  them  look  at  her  pigeon's  egg, 
on  the  side  of  her  foot,  the  little  ball-shaped  muscle  spe- 
cial to  her  profession,  like  the  triceps  of  the  pugilist  or 
the  dancing-girls'  calves.  She  was  vain  enough  to  put  on 
a  silk  stocking,  poked  out  her  foot  from  under  the  bed- 
clothes, let  them  feel  "her  egg,"  made  it  jump  under  their 
fingers  by  a  sudden  contraction. 

"Is  that  all  you've  got  to  show  us,  darling?"  asked  the 
impersonator. 

"You  don't  want  much,  I  don't  think !"  said  Lily,  pull- 
ing back  her  foot  under  the  quilt. 

The  incident  was  interrupted  by  new-comers  who  had 
also  known  Lily  when  she  was  that  high.  They  brought 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

fresh  news  from  Lisle  Street.  They  had  had  a  drink  with 
P.  T.  Clifton  himself,  had  had  a  drink  with  an  author  who 
was  writing  a  book  on  the  business. 

"Another  josser  who's  sure  to  talk  a  lot  of  nonsense !" 
cried  Lily.  "If  only  they  told  the  truth  and  described 
us  as  we  are,  a  sight  better  than  the  society  ladies,  who 
come  and  wait  for  pros  outside  the  stage-door !" 

And  they  went  on.  The  healths  they  had  drunk  with 
this  girl  and  that  girl ;  and  new  turns :  competitors  who 
were  cropping  up  ...  names  .  .  .  names  .  .  . 
Ave  Maria  ?  Dead,  they  said :  somewhere  in  Ecuador  or 
Peru. 

Then  Lily  stretched  herself  to  her  full  length  in  the 
sheets,  feeling  weary,  weary,  crushed  under  all  that  talk. 

And  Trampy  just  didn't  write,  sent  no  money  at  all. 
She  blushed  for  him  ...  in  spite  of  her  wish  to 
catch  him  tripping,  before  witnesses.  She  was  ashamed 
to  be  his  wife,  his  only  wife,  his  little  wife  for  ever. 

On  that  day,  as  it  happened,  Jimmy  came  to  pay  her 
a  visit.  His  engagement  at  the  Kolossal  was  ending. 
He  was  to  perform  at  the  London  Hippodrome,  before 
going  to  the  States.  A  certain  air  of  respect  surrounded 
him  from  the  moment  he  entered  the  room,  that  Jimmy 
who  already  stood  higher  than  any  of  them  among 
the  famous  bill-toppers!  And  they  gradually  retired, 
as  though  Lily  would  prefer  that.  It  was  no  use  her 
saying,  "Do  stay!"  They  went  all  the  same;  and  Lily 
was  left  alone  with  him,  a  little  embarrassed  and  yet 
flattered  at  being  thought  on  such  good  terms  with 
Jimmy.  As  for  him,  he  had  just  heard  about  Lily's  ill- 
ness, Trampy's  absence,  and  hurried  to  see  her,  bringing 
her  the  good  news  that  the  lawsuit  was  over.  Trampy 
would  have  nothing  more  to  pay.  .  .  . 


P  L  A  Y  I  N  G  'E  M    I  N  185 

From  that  day,  Jimmy  was  sometimes  seen  at  Lily's. 
He  spoke  little,  sat  down  on  the  basket  trunk,  listened, 
thought  of  things.  He  was  known  to  have  his  mind 
full  of  an  invention  superior  to  "Bridging  the  Abyss," 
one  could  expect  anything  from  him:  a  wonderful  chap 
Jimmy,  a  bit  cracked,  though,  with  ideas  of  his  own 
which  went  the  round  of  the  profession  and  were 
variously  appreciated.  A  fund  for  stage-children;  a 
reserve  upon  their  earnings,  to  be  banked  and  kept  un- 
touched till  they  came  of  age ;  a  home  of  rest  for  the  old 
and  the  sick;  a  weekly  matinee  for  the  benefit  of  the 
fund.  .  .  . 

Jimmy  described  the  piteous  lot  of  those  who  grow  old 
in  a  profession  intended  for  youth :  but  a  few  shillings  a 
month  paid  into  the  fund,  a  benefit  performance  or  two 
.  .  .  and  our  home  is  established  and  endowed  and 
we  should  see  no  more  stars  flung  aside,  to  die  in  hope- 
less poverty,  after  amusing  crowds  of  people  for  years 
and  years. 

"I'm  with  you,"  said  Lily,  laughing.  "Put  me  down 
for  a  pension  for  my  old  age  ...  if  ever  I  reach  old 
age  .  .  .  ugh,  ugh!" 

And  she  coughed,  with  the  embroidered  handkerchief 
at  her  lips. 

But  Lily's  joke  was  left  unechoed :  everybody  talked 
professional  shop,  quoted  figures ;  the  habit  of  signing  con- 
tracts, of  avoiding  the  traps  laid  by  the  agents  had  given 
them  all  a  keen  sense  of  business.  And  the  frequent  trav- 
eling, in  the  absence  of  education,  had  made  them  sharp 
at  understanding,  quick  in  the  uptake.  Their  clean- 
shaven faces  fell  into  wise  folds,  like  lawyers'. 

Jimmy  also  explained  his  idea  about  the  apprentices, 
the  compulsory  so  much  per  cent.,  the  inalienable  deposit 


186  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

paid  in  by  the  Pas  and  Mas  .  .  .  and,  much  more 
still,  by  the  profs  and  managers.  .  .  . 

"Good !"  said  Lily.    "I'm  with  you  !" 

There  was  a  general  laugh.  The  Whistling  Wonder 
interrupted  the  conversation  by  quacking  like  a  duck  at 
Jimmy  and  cooing  like  a  pigeon  at  Lily.  Jimmy  got  up 
and  said  good-by,  pleased  to  see  Lily  making  daily 
progress. 

"Ah,  Lily,"  they  said  again,  when  he  had  gone,  "that's 
the  one  you  ought  to  have  married,  not  the  other !" 

And  thereupon  they  began  to  pursue  their  favorite 
theme  and  amuse  themselves  by  describing  the  awful 
troubles  which  she  would  get  into  one  day  with  "the 
other,"  that  drunkard ; — the  man  with  the  thirty-six 
girls!  And  they  laughed  and  they  laughed,  my!  Lily 
herself  held  her  sides  with  laughing. 

All  this  was  stage  effect,  professional  exaggeration. 
Lily  dared  not  indulge  in  it  before  Jimmy.  She  was 
more  sincere,  always  a  little  embarrassed,  in  the  presence 
of  that  man  toward  whom  everybody  was  driving  her, 
as  though  they  all  saw  farther  into  her  life  than  she  her- 
self could.  She  was  no  longer  ill,  only  tired,  with  an  ac- 
cumulation of  past  wearinesses  that  made  her  love  to  lie 
down  flat.  But  she  would  get  up  to-morrow,  instead  of 
remaining  in  bed  to  see  her  friends;  no  humbug  before 
Jimmy. 

The  next  day  when  he  came,  Lily  was  alone.  So  much 
the  better,  he  had  something  to  say  to  her.  He  had 
made  up  his  mind  that  day.  His  own  present  prosperity 
formed  too  great  a  contrast  with  the  poverty  of  Lily 
.  .  .  that  poor  kiddie  who  had  run  away  from  home 
in  pursuit  of  happiness  and  whom  he  now  found  here,  in 
this  squalid  room,  ,  .  ,  It  was  all  very  well  to  the- 


P  L  A  Y  I  N  G  'E  M    I  N  187 

orize  about  children  who  have  earned  fortunes  and  who 
haven't  a  farthing;  but  that  was  mere  talk!  Suppose  he 
helped  Lily  a  little  in  the  meantime.  He  had  prepared 
all  sorts  of  good  reasons ;  he  had  found  a  smart  excuse, 
the  great  excuse  of  the  music-hall,  that  he  had  been  bet- 
ting on  horses  and  losing.  He  would  ask  Lily  to  keep 
his  money  for  him,  as  a  kindness,  otherwise  he  simply 
couldn't  help  it,  his  money  burned  a  hole  in  his  pocket. 
Then,  on  second  thought,  why  all  that  fuss?  Hadn't  he 
known  her  since  she  was  that  high?  And,  the  moment 
he  came  in,  he  just  handed  Lily  a  thousand-mark  note: 

"For  the  law-costs,  Lily!  And,  anything  over,  for 
your  expenses,  till  Trampy's  money  comes.  Only  too 
pleased  to  be  of  any  use.  You  can  pay  it  back  when  it 
suits  you.  And  good-by,  Lily,  ta-ta !" 

And  he  hurried  out,  leaving  Lily  with  the  thousand 
marks  in  her  hand. 

Lily  was  stupefied  and  confused.  She  asked  herself 
why?  why?  a  real  piece  of  brain-work,  which  made  her 
head  ache.  Anyhow  she  would  give  back  the  money 
to-morrow!  She  wouldn't  keep  it!  Trampy  would 
be  sure  to  bring  some ;  it  was  impossible  that  he  should 
bring  nothing;  but,  come  what  may,  she  would  give 
back  the  money  to-morrow !  She  took  the  great  oath 
of  the  stage  upon  it :  three  fingers  of  her  right  hand  up- 
lifted ;  her  left  hand  on  the  lucky  charm.  And  then  she 
went  and  shut  the  door,  turned  the  key  in  the  lock  and 
lay  down.  .  .  . 

A  noise  woke  her:  some  one  was  knocking  outside; 
but,  before  she  could  get  out  of  bed,  one  of  the  glass 
panes  of  the  door  broke  into  fragments.  Somebody  had 
smashed  it  with  his  elbow.  A  hand  came  through  the 


188  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

opening,  turned  back  the  key.  The  door  opened  and 
Trampy  entered,  raging,  growling: 

"There's  a  man  here!" 

"You  won't  find  him;  you  can  kill  me  if  you  do !"  cried 
Lily. 

She  expected  a  terrible  scene.  Trampy,  drunk,  had  the 
look  which  he  wore  on  his  bad  days.  He  peered  into  the 
corners,  turned  a  cunning  eye  on  Lily. 

Trampy  had  spent  the  evening  at  the  cafe  and  there 
heard  of  the  visits  which  Lily  received  during  his  ab- 
sence. The  neighbors  he  didn't  mind  about,  but  Jimmy. 
Jimmy  again!  The  damned  dog!  Why  should  he  poke 
his  nose  in?  And,  perhaps,  at  heart,  Trampy  was  not 
sorry  to  have  a  scene  with  Lily,  for  he  wasn't  bringing 
home  a  pfennig,  having  spent  all  his  money  on  cham- 
pagne with  girls.  He  felt  himself  at  fault.  He  would  get 
out  of  it  with  violence. 

"There's  a  man  here !"  repeated  Trampy,  walking  up 
to  Lily  like  a  madman. 

She  was  humiliated  to  the  core  when  she  saw  Trampy, 
dazed  with  tobacco,  heavy  with  beer,  stoop  and  look  un- 
der the  bed.  And,  suddenly,  seeing  the  bank-note  which 
Lily  had  laid  on  the  table,  Trampy  shouted : 

"You  can't  deny  it  this  time.  Tell  me  where  the  money 
comes  from!" 

"It's  from  Jimmy,"  said  Lily,  beside  herself.  "He 
thinks  of  me,  Jimmy  does,  while  you  leave  me  here  to 
starve.  It's  .  .  .  it's  for  the  law-costs." 

"Oh,  that's  another  thing!"  said  Trampy,  putting  the 
note  in  his  pocket. 

"Let  the  money  be!"  cried  Lily,  leaping  out  of  bed. 
"Don't  you  touch  it !" 

"Everything  here  belongs  to  me,  I  should  think,"  said 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  189 

Trampy,  a  little  more  calmly,  already  overcome  with 
drunken  drowsiness.  "Everything,  even  a  dear  little 
wifie,"  he  continued,  putting  his  snout  under  Lily's  dis- 
gusted nose. 

But  she  gave  a  movement  of  revulsion  so  spontaneous 
that  Trampy  turned  pale  under  the  insult : 

"W-what !  N-no  love  ?"  he  stammered.  "I'm  not  used 
to  that.  I  can  get  1-1-love  for  the  asking  ...  at  the 
ca-ca-cafe  ...  or  the  th-theater  ...  or  any- 
where." 

And  Trampy,  making  a  false  step,  caught  hold  of  the 
curtain  and  drew  it  back. 

In  the  pitiless  light  of  the  morning,  he  appeared  to  Lily 
like  a  drowned  man,  with  a  puffed-out  face,  swollen  eyes 
and  wan  cheeks.  To  think  that  she  belonged  to  that !  Lily 
spat  at  him  in  contempt.  Oh,  rather  sleep  with  lizards 
and  guinea-pigs  than  that ;  rather  with  a  woolly  dog,  like 
Poland,  that  Parisienne!  Oh,  to  get  rid  of  him  and  be 
free  again,  thought  Lily,  never  again  to  have  Trampy 
before  her  eyes !  And,  suddenly,  her  mind  was  made  up. 
She  dressed  herself  hurriedly. 

"Where  are  you  going?"  asked  Trampy. 

"I'm  off!"  said  Lily.    "I've  had  enough  of  this!" 

"What's  that?"  said  Trampy,  dull-mouthed,  flinging 
his  body  across  the  bed.  "What's  that?  Say  it  again!" 

"I  say  I  hate  the  sight  of  you !  I'm  going  back  to  my 
Pa  and  Ma!" 

"You,  you're  going  back  to  ...  well,  good-by, 
darling,  goo-good  .  .  .  goo-good-by,"  stammered 
Trampy,  sprawling  on  the  bed,  among  the  disordered 
clothes.  .  .  . 

Lily  moved  freely  round  the  room,  without  even  trou- 
bling about  him,  like  one  who  has  made  up  her  mind 


190  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

once  and  for  all.  She  packed  up  her  things  in  the  basket 
trunk.  She  put  her  bike  outside  the  door;  and,  just  as 
she  was  going  to  look  for  a  neighbor  to  help  her  down 
with  her  trunk,  an  idea  entered  her  head.  She  stopped 
on  the  threshold,  came  back  to  Trampy,  slipped  her  hand 
into  his  pocket  and  gingerly  took  out  the  bank-note : 

"An  insult  like  that !"  she  muttered.    "I'd  rather  starve 
than  not  give  Jimmy  back  the  money !" 


CHAPTER  VI 

"Lily!" 

She  thought  she  heard  herself  called,  in  her  dream, 
just  because  she  was  back  in  her  room  again,  in  London, 
among  familiar  objects.  She  felt  as  if  her  life  was  going 
on  exactly  as  in  the  old  days,  as  if  nothing  had  happened 
in  between.  Her  marriage?  A  nightmare.  And  her 
home-coming  yesterday  had  been  very  nice :  no  questions 
asked,  no  whys  and  hows.  Her  parents  knew,  of  course. 
They  knew  all  about  her  troubles  with  Trampy.  But  no 
reproaches,  nothing:  kisses,  everybody  very  happy,  in- 
cluding herself.  She  snuggled  under  the  bedclothes,  in 
the  hollow  left  by  Glass-Eye,  who  had  gone  down-stairs. 
Lily  felt  sorry  that  she  had  left  her  trunk  at  the  hotel, 
when  she  thought  of  the  cordial  welcome  she  had  re- 
ceived at  the  hands  of  Pa  and  Ma. 

It  was  quite  three  weeks  since  she  left  her  husband. 
She  went  over  it  all  again  in  her  head.  Her  departure 
from  Berlin !  She  meant  to  go  straight  to  Jimmy,  first, 
and  give  him  back  that  money;  only,  those  Vienna  hats, 
displayed  in  the  shop-windows,  those  dresses,  those  boots, 
when  she  saw  all  that,  Lily  understood  that  she  could  not 
return  to  London,  to  her  parents,  with  dingy-looking 
clothes,  after  her  successes  on  the  continent !  Pa  and  Ma 
would  have  laughed  in  her  face. 

Lily  felt  bound  to  say  that  she  had  been  most  reason- 
able: three  hundred  marks  for  that  Vienna  dress,  which 
suited  her  so  well;  why,  Jimmy  himself  would  have  ap- 
proved. 

191 


192  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"Let's  see !" 

She  reckoned  on  her  fingers:  forty  marks  the  hat, 
three  hundred  the  dress;  and  the  underthings,  chemises, 
stays,  a  silk  petticoat,  boots  .  .  .  that  came  to 
.  .  .  came  to  ...  a  week  at  a  hotel  in  Ber- 
lin ...  time  lost  at  Hamburg  .  .  .  the  jour- 
ney from  Hamburg  to  Rotterdam,  Harwich  and  London 
.  .  .  the  hotel  on  arriving,  so  as  to  be  able  to  dress 
before  going  home:  it  left  her  just  fifty  shillings  to 
play  the  lady  with  and  buy  presents  for  Pa  and  Ma. 
And  Jimmy  .  .  .  Jimmy,  who  was  in  London  also, 
due  to  open  at  the  Hippodrome!  And  she  had  sworn 
that  she  would  give  him  back  that  money  at  once!  To 
quiet  her  conscience,  Lily,  under  her  blankets,  took  the 
"counter-oath"  of  the  stage,  with  her  left  hand  behind  her 
back,  the  fingers  closed  over  the  thumb,  that  she  would 
repay  him  the  money,  most  certainly,  as  soon  as  she  be- 
gan to  earn  any. 

"Lily!    Can  I  come  in,  Lily?" 

It  was  Ma,  bringing  her  breakfast  and  a  paper,  The 
Era.  Lily  gave  a  quick  glance  round  the  room :  her  skirt 
was  hanging  on  the  peg ;  the  bodice  lay,  without  a  crease, 
over  the  back  of  a  chair,  the  hat  on  top  of  it,  the  linen 
neatly  folded :  good !  She  did  not  look  a  scarecrow,  at 
any  rate !  And,  sitting  up  against  the  pillows,  with  a 
napkin  on  her  knees,  Lily  breakfasted  daintily,  with  her 
finger-tips : 

"Pa,  where's  Pa?"  asked  Lily.    "Tell  him  to  come  up." 

"Your  Pa  has  gone  out  with  the  apprentices,"  said  Ma. 
"He  wouldn't  wake  you,  you  looked  so  tired  last  night. 
Here,  Lily,  some  more  coffee?  Another  slice  of  bread 
and  butter?"  continued  Ma,  spreading  it  for  her. 

"  'K  you !" 


PLAYING  'EM   IN  193 

Lily  accepted  this  as  her  due,  like  a  lady  accustomed 
to  the  manners  of  good  society,  to  having  her  breakfast 
brought  to  her  in  bed  by  the  maid. 

"Oh,  Ma,"  said  Lily,  as  she  sugared  Her  coffee,  "they 
do  understand  things  on  the  continent !  They  know  how 
to  appreciate  artistes  there.  I've  had  such  successes !" 

"And  you  were  angry  with  us  for  teaching  you  your 
profession,"  said  Ma.  "You  see  now  that  it  was  for  your 
good." 

"But  it  depends  on  how  it's  done,"  said  Lily.  "If  I 
had  always  been  treated  like  this,  I  should  never  have  left 
you." 

"Well,  you  don't  bear  your  Pa  and  me  a  grudge,  I 
suppose,"  said  Ma,  "or  you  wouldn't  have  come  back. 
We  knew  you'd  come  back.  This  has  always  been  your 
address ;  your  Pa  never  took  your  name  out  of  The  Era." 

"You  didn't  treat  me  fair,"  said  Lily,  "but  I've  forgot- 
ten most  of  it.  Oh,  don't  let's  talk  about  it  any  more! 
Let's  talk  of  something  else ;  let's  talk  of  you." 

Lily  knew  all  about  their  struggles,  their  successes; 
had  heard  of  it  on  the  stage,  in  the  cafes.  But  here,  in 
her  room,  as  described  by  Ma,  she  put  her  finger  on  it,  so 
to  speak,  and  realized  more  fully  what  a  blank  her  flight 
had  made,  what  a  catastrophe  it  had  been  for  them. 

And  Ma  gave  details,  tried  to  interest  Lily  in  the  fate 
of  the  troupe ;  told  her  that,  for  months,  the  troupe  had 
been  refused  everywhere,  because  she  wasn't  in  it,  and 
her  Pa  had  to  change  apprentices. 

"I  was  the  troupe !"  said  Lily. 

"OK,  the  trouble  your  Pa  took  running  after  his  own 
fat  freaks !  I  thought  he  would  get  heart-disease !  And 
months  of  it,  without  earning  a  thing.  Oh,  if  your  Pa 
hadn't  had  some  money  .  .  .  !" 


194  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"But  he  had  plenty !"  said  Lily. 

"Oh,  not  much,  not  so  much  as  you  think!"  Ma  has- 
tened to  say,  thinking  she  saw  a  spiteful  allusion  in  Lily's 
remark. 

"Yes,  all  right,  I  know,"  said  Lily.  "Never  mind  about 
that.  It's  my  turn  to  make  money  now,  for  myself." 

"Still  that  independent  spirit!  We  haven't  got  her 
yet !"  thought  Ma. 

And  she  went  on  talking  of  the  troupe,  of  the  cousin 
who  played  the  star. 

"Pooh !"  said  Lily.    "A  nice  sort  of  star !" 

"It's  not  every  one  who  can  star  in  Berlin  by  herself, 
like  you,"  said  Ma.  "Do  you  know,  Lily,  you  ought  to  stay 
with  us :  we  should  get  on  so  well  together.  You  would 
manage  the  troupe;  and,  one  day — who  knows? — you 
might  make  a  nice  marriage." 

"But  I  am  married,  Ma!  I  didn't  live  with  him!  Do 
you  mean  to  say  you  think  .  .  .  ?  Not  I !" 

"I  know  you're  married,  but  you  can  get  a  divorce. 
Jimmy  used  to  make  love  to  you;  now  there's  a  man 
who  .  .  ." 

"And  you  used  to  say  he  was  a  drunkard,  Ma !" 

"Never !"  said  Ma,  rising  to  leave. 

Lily  was  flattered,  at  heart,  to  be  received  like  that. 
She  also  felt  proud  that  her  Pa  had  not  been  ashamed  of 
her  and  that  he  had  kept  her  name  in  The  Era.  Well, 
they  treated  her  as  a  lady,  saw  her  value,  gave  her  her 
due.  And  she  lay  for  a  while  enjoying  her  triumph,  while 
she  turned  the  pages  of  The  Era  in  an  absent-minded 
way :  Miss  This,  Miss  That,  Cape  Town,  Calcutta  .  .  . 
actors,  singers  .  .  . 

"Those  aren't  artistes,  any  of  them !" 

Programs,  plays,  songs :  "Why  I  Love  Women!" 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  195 

"I  know,  you  footy  rotter !" 

"Is  Marriage  a  Failure?" 

"I  should  think  so!"  thought  Lily. 

And  articles,  biographies     .     .     . 

"Pack  of  lies !"  thought  Lily. 

And  pages  of  "Wanted    .     .     .    Wanted     .     .     ." 

Lily  ran  her  eye  down  the  columns :  artistes'  boarding- 
houses,  costumiers,  scene-painters,  dancing-schools,  every 
town,  every  theater.  Hullo ! — she  had  turned  the  page — 
Tom,  the  dancer —  Hullo !  At  Milan ! 

"Bravo,  Tom!" 

Jimmy  at  the  Hippodrome  next  week ;  private  address, 
Whitcomb  Mansions. 

"Pooh,  he's  well  off!    What's  fifty  pounds  to  him?" 

Hullo!  Miss  Lily — Berlin —  Permanent  address, 
Rathbone  Place,  London,  W. 

"Well  done,  Pa !  Serve  him  right,  the  tramp  cyclist !" 
said  Lily,  throwing  down  the  paper  and  jumping  out  of 
bed. 

Quite  a  business,  her  toilet.  She  was  two  hours  titi- 
vating herself.  She  wanted  Pa  and  Ma  to  be  proud  of 
her,  of  her  successes  on  the  continent.  And,  when  the 
apprentices  came  in  from  practice,  you  should  have  seen 
her  walk  into  the  dining-room.  A  little  air  of  simplicity, 
her  forehead  put  out  for  her  delighted  Pa  to  kiss,  hands 
all  round —  "Hullo,  girls !  Hullo,  Daisy !"  And  she  sat 
down  like  a  lady  accustomed  to  smart  restaurants,  who 
does  not  despise  dinner  at  home,  however,  with  a  boiled 
leg  of  mutton  to  recruit  her  inside  after  those  champagne 
suppers,  those  truffled  pheasants,  that  damned  conti- 
nental cooking!  She  accepted  everything,  and  thought 
it  all  very  nice,  simple  life,  simple  joys,  the  only  ones ! 

She  set  a  good  example  to  the  new  apprentices,  who 


196  THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

eyed  her  stealthily,  instead  of  eating,  for  Miss  Lily's  pres- 
ence turned  their  heads  entirely.  My !  A  star  like  that,  a 
real  one!  Lily  Clifton,  the  New  Zealander  on  Wheels! 
And  dressed  .  .  .  dressed  like  a  lady  in  the  front 
boxes !  Cousin  Daisy  was  green  with  jealousy.  Lily  talked 
of  her  travels,  her  successes  and  the  crossing,  gee !  Waves 
"miles  high,"  the  boat  standing  on  end !  Glass  Eye 
Maud  devoured  her  with  her  one  eye,  screwed  up  her 
fat  red  cheeks  in  a  fixed  and  motionless  laugh,  scared 
before  Lily,  who  came  from  over  the  sea,  from  coun- 
tries where  savages  live.  Glass-Eye,  in  her  perturbation, 
served  Lily  first.  Pa  made  no  objection,  asked  Lily's  per- 
mission to  light  his  pipe:  was  she  sure  she  didn't  mind 
smoke?  Lord,  you  never  knew,  with  those  ladies!  He 
swelled  with  pride.  If  it  had  been  Christmas-time,  he 
would  have  ordered  a  pudding,  my,  a  real  wedding-cake 
three  feet  across!  His  ideas  of  grandeur  returned,  his 
triumphal  tour  round  the  world,  the  definite  exter- 
mination of  the  fat  freaks  ...  if  Lily  remained 
with  him  .  .  . 

After  dinner,  the  apprentices  retired,  to  finish  sewing 
some  bloomers.  Lily  approved : 

"Bloomers  ?  Very  nice     .     .     .     for  a  troupe !" 

Presently,  in  the  afternoon,  the  three  of  them  went  for 
a  walk:  Pa  freshly  shaven;  Ma  decked  out  in  her  jew- 
elry: Lily  did  not  wear  any,  "only  in  the  evening  when 
she  went  into  society."  Tottenham  Court  Road,  the  Pal- 
ace, the  Hippodrome.  ...  Pa  would  have  liked  to 
write  up  on  his  hat : 

"Lily  has  come  back !" 

He  looked  to  right  and  left,  had  the  satisfaction  of  dis- 
tributing nods  and  bows  to  some  artistes,  with  Lily  on  his 
arm,  as  though  to  say : 


PLAYING  »EM   IN  197 

"You  see  it  was  wrong,  all  that  people  were  saying, 
about  those  smackings !  And  the  proof  is,  here  she  is, — 
on  my  arm,  damn  it !" 

As  for  Lily,  she  thought  only  of  showing  herself : 

"If  Trampy  could  see  me  now !"  she  reflected.  "And 
Jimmy,  if  he  could  see  me,  in  my  fine  dress,  while  it's  still 
new !" 

Regent  Street  reminded  Lily  of  Pa's  generosity.  She 
would  not  be  behindhand.  Pa  had  to  accept  a  red  tie,  a 
pair  of  gloves,  a  match-box,  as  a  present;  Ma,  an  em- 
broidered handkerchief,  a  lucky  charm.  Lily  had  the  sat- 
isfaction of  paying  with  gold  and  receiving  change. 

She  was  tired,  in  the  evening,  put  on  a  languid  air: 
gee,  her  mother  would  have  shaken  her  for  less  in  the  old 
days!  Lily  put  it  on  still  more,  to  show  them  all  that 
times  were  changed.  But  she  did  the  troupe  the  honor 
of  going  to  see  their  performance  at  the  Castle.  It  was  a 
great  success  for  her. 

"Made  a  bit,  eh?"  asked  the  manager,  seeing  her  fine 
dress.  "Coming  back  for  good,  to  star  with  the  New 
Zealanders  ?" 

"I  don't  know ;  I  shall  see." 

Lily  was  quite  ready  to  come  back,  in  her  own  mind, 
but  she  wanted  to  return  in  triumph.  It  all  depended  on 
the  price  offered :  to  think  that  she  had  worked  for  them 
at  ten  shillings  a  week,  when  she  was  worth  quite  two 
pounds  a  night !  She  would  see ;  she  would  make  her  own 
conditions:  for  instance,  herself  in  tights,  the  others  in 
bloomers  ...  a  special  tune  for  her  entrance  .  .  . 
no  star  beside  herself ! 

Lily  watched  the  New  Zealanders'  performance  with 
the  air  of  an  expert : 

"Not  so  bad ;  quite  good   ..." 


198  THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

And  she  had  various  ideas:  herself  as  a  fine  lady,  un- 
dressing on  the  stage.  Or  rather,  no,  as  a  statue,  on  a 
pedestal  in  a  park  .  .  .  with  Cousin  Daisy  at  her  feet, 
throwing  flowers  to  her.  Then  she  would  come  to  life,  as 
though  waking  from  sleep,  and  step  down  prettily  to  a 
special  tune.  Hullo,  what's  this  ?  A  bike !  And  then,  gee, 
a  blast  of  the  trombone  and  she  would  show  them  what  a 
star  was,  a  real  one !  Yes  .  .  .  she  would  see  ...  if 
Pa  and  Ma  insisted  .  .  .  perhaps  .  .  . 

But  her  real  triumph  was  next  day,  at  practice. 
Her  Pa,  excited  by  her  presence,  ran  and  ran,  notwith- 
standing his  palpitations  of  the  heart.  It  was  no  use  his 
trying  to  restrain  himself :  his  enthusiasm  mastered  him  as 
soon  as  he  saw  them  all  in  the  saddle,  his  little  Woolly- 
legs! 

And  no  more  Tom :  he  was  all  by  himself  now ;  and, 
when  he  sat  down  to  take  breath,  he  still  ordered  his  little 
Woolly-legs  about,  shouted  his  cutting  remarks  at  them. 

Lily  raised  her  head  proudly.  She  seemed  to  take  the 
apprentices  to  witness.  She  had  gone  through  that,  much 
worse  than  that,  for  years !  She  was  a  gentle  little  lady, 
all  the  same.  Besides,  she  was  all  for  gentleness : 

"Leave  her  to  me,  Pa;  you're  making  poor  Cousin 
Daisy  quite  nervous.  She  doesn't  know ;  I'll  show  her !'' 

And,  under  her  great  waving  feather,  Lily,  without 
even  taking  off  her  gloves : 

"There,  put  your  foot  there  .  .  .  like  that  .  .  . 
and  like  that  .  .  .  firmly.  No,  not  like  that !" 

And,  suddenly,  stimulated  with  professional  zeal: 

"Wait,  I'll  show  you  how  it's  done !" 

And,  in  an  instant,  to  show  them  all  how  you're  got  up 
when  you're  a  star  and  when  you  come  back  from  the 
continent,  Lily  took  off  her  bodice,  pinned  up  her  skirt 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  199 

amid  the  rustling  of  the  silk  and,  bare-armed,  in  a  lace- 
trimmed  chemisette : 

"Now  then,  I'll  show  you !" 

And  Lily,  with  all  her  little  muscles  alive,  took  a  bike, 
jumped  on  it  as  she  would  on  a  stool  and  then — yoop! — 
the  bike  on  its  back-wheel,  spinning  round  like  a  top. 

"Twirls  are  as  easy  as  anything:  you  only  have  to 
know  how  to  do  them.  Come  on !  Have  a  try !" 

And  the  other,  encouraged  by  a  friendly  slap,  tried  in 
her  turn  and — yoop ! — succeeded  .  .  .  very  nearly. 

Pa  was  enraptured  at  the  mere  sight  of  Lily's  little 
curled  nostrils  and  her  earnest  look : 

"What  a  professor  she  would  make !"  he  thought.  "If 
ever  she  takes  the  belt,  she'll  be  simply  grand.  I  can  just 
fold  my  arms !" 

But  he  made  her  dress  very  quickly.  That  exhibition 
of  dainty  underwear,  which  flattered  his  pride  as  a  father, 
would  have  driven  girls  used  to  sewing  their  own  calico 
shifts  quite  crazy:  there  would  have  been  no  holding 
them ;  and,  besides,  artistes  might  come  in  at  any  moment. 
It  would  not  do  for  Lily  to  be  seen  half-dressed  like  that ; 
and  she  realized  this  herself,  like  a  sensible  little  lady, 
who  hates  scandal. 

"Stay  with  us,  Lily,"  said  her  Pa,  at  home,  after  dinner, 
when  the  apprentices  had  gone  out.  "Stay  with  us." 

"It's  your  duty,"  said  Ma. 

"If  you  stay,"  continued  Pa,  "I'll  make  you  a  present 
of  a  brand-new  banjo !" 

"Thank  you,  no  more  banjo  for  me,"  said  Lily,  laugh- 
ing. "I've  had  my  share." 

"All  right,  no  more  banjo,"  agreed  Pa,  "provided  you 
stay  with  us :  that's  all  I  ask.  I  shall  be  afraid  of  nobody 
then ;  I'll  show  them  what  an  artiste  is !" 


200  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

And,  warming  to  his  subject,  Pa  built  up  his  plans : 
the  great  English  tours ;  and  Eastern  and  Western 
America,  Australia,  South  Africa: 

"Eh,  Lily  ?  Wouldn't  you  like  to  see  it  all  again  ?  Or 
else,  for  once,  I'll  get  up  a  troupe  and  take  it  round  the 
world  myself,  with  you  in  it !" 

"But,  Pa,"  said  Lily,  very  coldly,  "I  have  business  ar- 
rangements of  my  own,  more  engagements  than  I  want." 

"It's  a  business  arrangement  I'm  proposing  to  you," 
said  Pa. 

"And  shall  I  come  on  in  tights  ?" 

"In  tights,  if  you  like." 

"And  no  other  star  but  me !"  continued  Lily,  explain- 
ing her  idea :  undressing  on  the  stage,  or  else  the  statue, 
her  own  scenery  .  .  . 

"Capital  idea !"  cried  Pa. 

"And  then  there's  the  money  side  of  the  question,"  said 
Lily.  "I  make  a  lot  of  money  now.  I  want  to  work  for 
myself." 

"And  what  you  make  with  us,  won't  it  be  yours,  one 
day?"  suggested  Ma. 

"Stay  with  us,"  said  Pa,  "and  Trampy  will  burst  with 
spite  and  you'll  be  much  happier  here,  with  your  Pa  and 
Ma,  instead  of  with  that  good-for-nothing!" 

"Or  instead  of  remaining  alone,  which  is  even  worse," 
Ma  insisted.  "You  want  us  still,  Lily  ..." 

"And  you  me !  Let  us  talk  business,"  interrupted  Lily, 
who  would  have  liked  a  pencil  and  paper,  to  make  her  cal- 
culations with. 

Ma,  in  her  heart  of  hearts,  did  not  think  it  at  all  nice  of 
a  daughter  to  consider  only  her  own  interests;  but  Pa 
hurried  up,  thought  Lily  was  quite  right  .  .  .  although 
he  was  greatly  embarrassed  in  reality  and  asked  himself 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  201 

how  much  he  could  well  offer  her,  so  as  to  make  a  profit 
for  himself. 

Fortunately,  he  was  relieved  of  his  predicament  by 
Glass-Eye,  who  came  in  with  a  telegram  for  Miss  Lily. 

"Give  it  here!"  said  Lily,  who  noticed,  as  she  opened 
the  envelope,  that  a  chair  had  creaked  and  that  the  palm 
of  her  left  hand  was  itching :  a  sign  of  money.  "I'll  bet 
it's  about  an  engagement.  I  have  offers  from  every  side ; 
you  have  no  idea  .  .  .  Well,  I  never!"  she  said.  "A 
telegram  from  Jimmy,  at  the  Horse  Shoe !  I  thought  he 
was  at  Whitcomb  Mansions.  What  can  he  want  with 
me  ?  He  asks  me  to  call  on  him !  Funny  way  of  treating  a 
lady.  Why  can't  he  come  himself  ?" 

But  Pa  and  Ma  thought  differently :  Jimmy  was  "some- 
body," a  man  to  be  considered,  right  at  the  top  of  the 
profession ;  she'd  have  done  better  to  marry  him  and  not 
her  Trampy  Wheel- Pad!  .  .  . 

"You  must  go,"  insisted  Ma.  "Don't  you  like  going 
alone  ?  Shall  I  come  with  you  ?" 

"Yes,  that's  different,"  said  Lily,  who  had  a  certain 
pride  and  who  felt  sure  that  Jimmy  would  never  men- 
tion that  thousand  marks  before  a  witness. 

Her  heart  beat  a  little,  as  she  went  up  the  staircase  of 
the  Horse  Shoe  to  the  third  floor,  on  the  left,  door  32. 
At  first,  she  was  surprised  that  he  should  be  there,  having 
read  in  The  Era  .  .  .  but  he  might  have  moved.  On 
the  whole,  she  was  not  sorry  to  show  herself  to  Jimmy  in 
her  pretty  frock,  he  having  seen  her  last  in  her  room  in 
Berlin,  looking  ill,  unkempt  and  frightfully  ugly.  She 
was  not  sorry,  either,  that  Ma  was  with  her : 

"He's  in  love,  I  suppose,"  said  Lily.  "Everybody  makes 
love  to  me:  why  do  they,  Ma?  I'm  not  a  bit  pretty,  off 
the  stage." 


202  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

And  she  took  a  mischievous  pleasure  in  enlarging 
upon  her  successes  and  her  flirtations,  there,  on  the  stair- 
case of  the  Horse  Shoe,  with  Ma  beside  her,  and  no 
smackings,  gee,  nor  any  fear  of  smackings  in  the  future ! 
What  a  change  since  her  marriage ! 

"Yes,"  Lily  went  on,  as  she  read  the  numbers  on  the 
doors — 29 — "Ma,  you  ought  to  see  the  flowers  I  get,  the 
chocolates,  the  sweets" — 31 — "but  all  that  does  not  pre- 
vent a  lady  from  keeping  straight" — 32 — 

Then  she  gave  a  stifled  cry,  her  voice  stuck  in  her 
throat :  Trampy,  Trampy  himself  stood  in  the  doorway, 
his  hands  in  his  pockets,  a  cigar  in  his  mouth,  his  hat 
cocked  over  one  ear ;  and  he  looked  at  her  with  a  banter- 
ing air : 

"Sorry  to  disappoint  you,  Miss  Lily.  You  hoped  to 
find  some  one  else,  eh  ?" 

Ma,  utterly  flabbergasted,  had  dropped  on  to  a  bench 
in  the  passage,  in  the  shadow.  Trampy  did  not  even  see 
her.  Lily  was  crimson  with  shame  at  being  caught  trip- 
ping by  Trampy :  she  could  not  deny  it.  She  wanted  to 
run  away,  but,  stupefied  with  surprise,  remained  where 
she  stood,  with  dilated  pupils,  open-mouthed. 

"You  can  look  at  me  till  to-morrow  morning  and  it 
won't  help  you,"  said  Trampy  quietly,  with  the  air  of  a 
man  who  has  prepared  his  speech.  "I've  got  you  this 
time !  I  sent  the  telegram ;  I  knew  you'd  come,  wherever 
he  thought  fit  to  meet  you ;  you'd  have  come  for  less  than 
Jimmy;  you'd  have  come  for  the  impersonator  or  any 
one  else,  never  mind  whom ;  any  one  in  the  rotten  lot,  any 
gentleman  in  the  front  boxes,  eh?  It's  'Whistle  and  I'll 
come  to  you,  my  lad!'  with  you!  But  I  thought  Jimmy 
would  do  best,  Jimmy  your  lover,  whom  you  followed 
to  London,  Now  my  luck  has  brought  me  here,  too  .  ,  , 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  203 

for  my  work  .  .  .  not  like  you !  And,  by  the  way,  Miss 
Lily,  have  you  brought  me  that  thousand  marks  which  you 
got  from  Jimmy  and  which  I  was  going  to  give  back  to 
him,  when  you  stole  it  out  of  my  pocket?  Or  did  you 
spend  it  on  the  way  here  ?  You  hadn't  a  rag  to  your  back, 
when  you  left  me,  and  I  find  you  dressed  up  like  a  Tottie. 
My  compliments,  Miss  Lily." 

"O  God,  strike  him  dead !"  prayed  Lily.  "Strike  him, 
kill  him,  kill  him!" 

Lily  felt  like  fainting.  She  could  not  breathe,  her  ribs 
seemed  to  be  crushing  her  lungs.  At  last  she  drew  a  long, 
slow  breath : 

"Well,"  she  stammered,  overcome  with  shame,  "well, 
we  can  be  divorced  ...  if  you  like." 

"I'll  see,"  said  Trampy,  hardening  his  voice  and  throw- 
ing away  his  cigar.  "Go  back  to  your  Jimmy  in  the  mean- 
time. You  may  be  sure  I  have  no  use  for  a  traitress  like 
you,  an  idler  who  refuses  to  work,  a  woman  who  lets 
every  man  make  love  to  her !"  And,  suddenly,  pointing 
to  the  stairs,  "You  can  be  sure  that  I've  no  further  use  for 
you !  Get  out  of  this,  damn  you !  And  you're  not  going, 
mind  you :  I'm  kicking  you  out !" 

And  therewith  Trampy  went  back  into  his  room  and 
slammed  the  door  in  her  face. 

Mrs.  Clifton  and  Lily  remained  glued  where  they  were. 
At  last,  Ma,  trembling  all  over,  rose  from  the  bench  and 
led  away  her  daughter,  who  shook  her  fist  at  the  door, 
crying : 

"Liar!" 

"Why  didn't  you  speak  just  now,  my  poor  Lily?"  said 
Ma.  "You  ought  to  have  answered  back!  So  it's  true, 
all  that  ?  A  nice  thing !  You,  who  pretended  ..." 

"Oh,  let  go,  you're  crushing  my  sleeve !"  retorted  Lily 


204  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

angrily,  pulling  her  arm  away  from  the  hand  that 
clasped  it. 

She  went  down  the  stairs,  followed  by  Ma,  without 
knowing  what  she  was  doing.  She  would  have  liked  to 
find  a  train  on  the  pavement,  a  motor,  to  jump  into  it,  to 
make  off  and  never  see  anybody  again,  after  the  humilia- 
tion which  she  had  undergone  before  Ma. 

She  flung  herself  into  the  first  cab  that  came  along, 
yelled  a  direction  to  the  driver :  Hyde  Park,  anywhere ! 
Ma  found  herself  by  Lily's  side,  without  being  asked  to 
step  in,  and  she  repeated: 

"Lily,  you  ought  to  have  .  .  .  Why  did  you  let 
him  treat  you  like  that?  Is  it  true?" 

"First  of  all,"  said  Lily,  suddenly  turning  and  facing 
her  Ma;  "first  of  all,  it's  your  fault  .  .  .  yours 
.  .  .  all  that's  happened,  damn  it!  If  you  had  been 
less  hard  on  me,  I  shouldn't  have  gone  off  with  that 
footy  rotter!" 

"I've  often  been  sorry  since,"  said  Ma.  "I've  been  sorry 
for  it.  Calm  yourself,  Lily.  And  then  .  .  .  were  we 
so  very  wrong?  Look  how  your  husband  has  just  treated 
you  before  me,  before  your  mother !" 

"He's  a  liar !    I  swear  it !" 

"And  Jimmy's  thousand  marks  ?  What  was  that  money 
for  ?  Why  didn't  you  give  it  back  ?" 

"It's  a  lie !    It's  a  lie !" 

"You,  who  pretended  you  were  making  such  a  lot  of 
money !"  continued  Ma.  "There's  not  a  word  of  truth  in 
what  you  said.  You  haven't  a  penny.  I  can  see  it.  Oh, 
you're  the  same  as  ever,  my  poor  Lily — extravagant 
habits,  dresses — and  here  you  are,  penniless,  left  to  your- 
self with  your  expensive  tastes.  You'll  die  in  poverty 
one  day,  without  a  Pa  or  Ma.  Come  back  to  us,  Lily." 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  205 

"To  make  nothing?    No,  thank  you !" 

"Who  says  so?" 

"Oh,  I  know !  Ten  shillings  a  week,  eh  ?  Family  life, 
as  that  old  beast  of  a  Fuchs  says !" 

"Lily,"  said  Ma  severely,  "don't  insult  decent  people! 
Have  some  respect,  at  any  rate." 

But  Lily  had  no  respect  left  for  anybody.  Pas,  Mas, 
Trampies,  Nunkies,  one  and  all,  were  so  many  slave- 
drivers  ! 

"And  yet  it's  quite  true,  I'm  penniless,"  thought  Lily 
to  herself.  "I,  who  have  earned  a  fortune  for  you !"  she 
grumbled  under  her  breath,  stifling  a  sob. 

"You're  mad,  my  poor  Lily !  All  that  we  have  will  be 
yours  some  day.  You  never  think  of  the  future;  you 
spend  your  last  penny." 

"I  earn  and  I  spend !" 

"And  suppose  you  fell  ill,  my  poor  Lily  ?" 

"Hospitals  aren't  made  for  dogs!  Besides,  I  have 
friends.  And  then,  at  least,  I  shall  have  had  some  fun 
for  my  money,  while  you,  if  you  died  to-morrow,  Pa 
would  marry  another  woman,  who  would  spend  all  your 
savings,  all  the  money  I  have  earned  for  you." 

"Lily,"  cried  Mrs.  Clifton,  "you're  insulting  your  fa- 
ther !" 

"I'm  telling  you  things  as  they  are;  and  I  won't  come 
back  to  you,  because  I  can  make  more  elsewhere !  Every 
one  for  himself!" 

"But  you  don't  make  a  penny!"  said  Ma,  gradually 
getting  angry.  "You  heard  Trampy,  just  now.  He  called 
you  an  idler.  Your  Pa,  at  least,  used  to  make  you  work. 
You're  trying  to  bluff  us  with  those  stories  of  your  suc- 
cesses. I  dare  say  you'll  be  glad,  one  day,  of  a  crust  of 
bread  with  us." 


206  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"Ma!" 

"Your  contracts,"  said  Ma,  "you're  always  talking  of 
your  contracts.  I  should  like  to  see  them  and  your  pro- 
grams too." 

"Certainly,"  said  Lily.  "I'll  show  them  to  you:  Mu- 
nich, Berlin,  Hamburg.  I've  had  successes  everywhere, 
engagements  everywhere !  I  make  more  by  myself  than 
all  Pa's  troupe  put  together !" 

"Yes,  but  how  do  you  get  your  engagements?"  said 
Ma,  pale  with  anger,  seeing  that  Lily  was  escaping  them 
and,  this  time,  for  good.  "Tell  me  how  you  get  them?" 

"Why,  through  my  talent,  I  suppose." 

"Your  talent !  Pooh !  You've  none  left !  You  get 
them  through  your  friends:  through  your  Jimmy,  your 
gentlemen  friends  ..." 

"That's  a  lie !" 

"You  get  them  ...  by  looking  pretty  and  getting 
round  the  men  .  .  .  you  .  .  .  you  .  .  .  you  ..." 

"Mother!" 

Lily  drew  back  her  shoulder,  her  arm  stiff,  ready  to 
strike ;  but  a  sense  of  respect  withheld  her. 

"Stop !"  she  cried  to  the  cabman,  in  a  hoarse  voice. 

And,  without  even  waiting  for  the  cab  to  pull  up  beside 
the  curb,  Lily  jumped  out  in  the  roadway,  into  the  mud. 

"Mother,"  she  said  to  Mrs.  Clifton,  "mother,  I  shall 
never  forget  this !" 

And,  mechanically,  in  her  haste  to  get  away,  she 
handed  the  man  what  money  she  had  left,  made  a  sign  to 
him  to  go  on  and,  without  saying  good-by,  Lily 
saw  the  cab  drive  off.  It  was  evening,  in  a  quiet 
street:  where  was  she?  Lily  did  not  know;  her  head 
was  in  a  whirl.  She  recognized  Old  Compton  Street: 
had  they  gone  no  farther  ?  It  seemed  to  her  that  she  had 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  207 

been  riding  for  an  hour  .  .  .  but  no,  barely  a  few 
minutes  .  .  . 

Alone  in  London,  without  money,  in  the  mud,  in  the 
dark,  oh !  she  wished  she  could  be  swallowed  up  in  the 
sewer.  She  felt  like  killing  herself. 

"If  I  walk  toward  the  Thames,"  she  muttered,  "I  am 
done  for !" 

And  she  took  a  street  on  the  left,  leading  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  embankment.  The  movement  restored  her  to 
her  self-consciousness. 

An  idea  came  to  her,  a  distant  hope,  a  glimmer,  very 
faint  at  first,  which  suddenly  grew  in  dimensions  within 
her  and  lit  her  up  in  every  particle.  Jimmy!  He  ap- 
peared to  her,  all  at  once,  like  a  giant  eight  feet  high,  as 
on  his  posters.  Ah,  people  seemed  to  associate  her  life 
with  his,  to  presume  all  sorts  of  things  .  .  .  though  he 
had  never  even  kissed  her!  Yes,  he  had  ...  on  the 
stage  ...  in  Berlin,  but  that  was  before  everybody! 
And  everything  drove  her  toward  him,  she  always  found 
herself  on  his  path :  Jimmy  was  everywhere,  always.  And 
Jimmy  was  powerful  and  he  was  good-looking  and  he 
loved  her !  He  loved  her !  To  keep  straight  was  no  use. 
Why,  all  of  them,  all  of  them,  including  her  husband,  that 
footy  rotter,  who  was  jealous  of  Jimmy  without  reason : 
she'd  give  him  cause  for  jealousy  soon,  if  it  killed  him 
with  rage,  him  and  all  the  rotten  lot.  And  she'd  do  it 
that  very  moment!  At  two  minutes'  walk  from  where 
she  stood,  in  Whitcomb  Mansions!  She  was  not  one  of 
those  women  whom  you  can  drive  to  despair  with  im- 
punity :  she  had  her  vengeance  ready  .  .  . 

Jimmy  was  alone  in  his  room;  his  table  was  covered 
with  books  and  papers.  He  was  still  at  his  great  plan. 


208  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Jimmy  sat  plunged  in  work,  without  the  least  thought 
of  what  was  happening  near  him :  in  fact,  he  did  not  even 
know  that  Lily  was  in  London.  His  installation  of  "Bridg- 
ing the  Abyss"  at  the  Hippodrome  had  taken  him  the 
whole  day.  There  was  a  scenic  effect  to  contrive  with  the 
manager:  a  "hydrodrama"  .  .  .  bridging  the  abyss 
over  a  torrent  .  .  .  with  a  waterfall  behind  .  .  . 
and  the  whole  thing  set  and  framed  in  a  pantomine,  which 
was  ready  for  production,  because  Jimmy  had  been  ex- 
pected for  a  month ;  in  short,  it  would  go  of  itself. 

And  under  the  peaceful  light  he  resumed  his  com- 
passes, or  else  flung  himself  back  in  his  chair,  lit  a  cigar- 
ette, followed  the  smoke  with  his  eyes  .  .  . 

Poor  Lily,  what  was  she  doing,  over  there,  in  Berlin, 
thought  Jimmy.  She  deserved  something  better  than 
Trampy,  that  adorable  Lily,  to  whom  he,  Jimmy,  would 
gladly  have  devoted  his  life  .  .  .  and  whom  he  felt  as 
it  were  swelling  up  inside  him  ...  in  his  heart  .  .  . 
in  his  brain  ...  in  spite  of  himself !  That  poor  Lily ! 
To  think  that  he  could  do  nothing  for  her,  that  he  almost 
regretted  having  done  her  a  service,  after  the  short  scene 
which  he  had  had  the  day  after  with  Trampy,  blinded  with 
jealousy,  because  he,  Jimmy,  had  visited  Lily  during  his 
absence;  the  reproaches  which  that  simple  action  had 
earned  for  him : 

"Look  here,  you  righter  of  wrongs,  you  who  preach 
to  others  and  go  making  love  to  their  wives !" 

To  have  put  himself  in  a  position  that  he  could  be 
spoken  to  like  that,  in  a  position  to  have  Lily  suspected ! 
What  a  shame !  Oh,  the  worries  it  would  cause  her !  Yes, 
he  had  been  imprudent,  perhaps :  it  was  all  his  fault ;  an- 
other man's  wife  .  .  . 

A  tap  at  the  door.  It  was  opened  behind  him,  before  he 


"Oh,  you  mean  cur!"  roared  Lily      Page  209 


PLAYING  'EM    IN  209 

had  time  to  say,  "Come  in,"  and  Lily  walked  up  to  Jimmy, 
who  sat  dumb  with  surprise :  a  strange  Lily,  feverish,  dis- 
traught with  passion.  At  any  other  time,  she  would  have 
felt  constrained,  because  of  the  thousand  marks,  or  proud 
to  show  off  her  dress.  Perhaps  also  she  had  prepared 
things  to  say.  But  all  that  was  forgotten,  gone,  blown 
away,  like  a  straw  in  the  storm,  for  nothing  came  from 
her  but  this,  in  an  anxious  voice : 

"Tell  me,  Jimmy,  is  it  true  that  you  love  me  ?" 

"Why,"  said  Jimmy,  perceiving  Lily's  agitation,  with- 
out guessing  the  reason :  oh,  but  for  Lily  to  do  a  thing 
like  that !  How  she  would  regret  it  later ;  it  was  terrible 
this  time  really.  He  saw  all  that  at  a  glance ;  a  great  pity 
invaded  him ;  and  yet  he  was  a  man  of  flesh  and  blood  and 
felt  stirred  to  the  marrow.  "Why,"  he  began,  in  a  voice 
which  he  strove  to  make  friendly,  no  more,  "why,  Lily, 
who  told  you  that  ?  Why  really  ...  I  ..." 

"Jimmy,"  she  cried,  fixing  her  eyes,  like  two  flaming 
swords  upon  him,  "answer  me!  Do  you  love  me  or  not?" 

Jimmy,  turning  as  pale  as  a  corpse,  looked  at  her  with- 
out flinching  and  shook  his  head  in  sign  of  no. 

"Oh,  you  mean  cur !"  roared  Lily. 

And  she  struck  him  on  the  face  with  her  clenched  fist. 

Then  she  went  out  without  a  word,  ran  down  the 
stairs,  out  into  the  blaze  of  Leicester  Square,  made  for  the 
dark  streets  and  plunged  into  the  night  .  .  . 


INTERMEZZO 
I 

The  artistes'  special  left  Euston  at  noon  that  Sunday. 
The  Three  Graces  were  the  first  to  arrive ;  then  the  wait- 
ing-rooms, until  lately  deserted,  began  to  fill  with  silent 
groups  of  five  or  six  persons  at  a  time,  who  had,  no  doubt, 
arranged  the  night  before,  at  the  theater,  to  travel  to- 
gether and  avail  themselves  of  the  reduction  allowed  to 
members  of  the  M.  H.  A.  R.  A. :  a  reduction  of  at  least 
a  third,  provided  there  were  five  in  the  party.  They  now 
swarmed  into  the  station  from  every  side :  pale  faces,  un- 
der huge  feathers ;  wrists  hooped  round  with  bangles ; 
breasts  bristling  with  gollywogs  and  lucky  charms.  There 
were  little  girls  with  bows  over  their  ears,  dressed  in 
plush  and  velvet  and  following  their  Pas  and  Mas. 
There  were  troupes  of  carpet  acrobats,  with  low  fore- 
heads, broad  shoulders  and  bow  legs;  and  profs,  bosses 
and  managers,  recognizable  by  the  richness  of  their 
watch-chains,  looked  after  the  luggage.  Theater-vans 
discharged  immense  basket  trunks,  marked  with  letters  a 
foot  high— "Brothers  This  .  .  .  Sisters  That  .  .  . 
So-and-so  Trio  .  .  .  Miss  Such-and-such" — and  bear- 
ing on  the  handles,  on  the  yellow  labels  of  the  M.  H. 
A.  R.  A.,  addresses  of  Empires  and  Palaces  and  of 
Grand  Opera-Houses  and  Grand  Theaters,  too,  for 

210 


INTERMEZZO 

there  were  not  only  "artistes,"  but  singers,  actresses, 
"chicken-necks,"  "woolly-legs,"  who  rubbed  shoulders 
with  the  muscular  acrobats.  All  of  them  crowded  round 
the  booking-office;  they  handed  in  professional  cards, 
helped  one  another,  among  pros ;  those  who  were  travel- 
ing alone  borrowed  tickets  to  enable  them  to  get  their 
over-weight  luggage  labeled :  complicated  pieces  of  appa- 
ratus, nickel-plated  rods  wrapped  up  in  sacking,  equili- 
brists' perches ;  the  coaches,  which  were  carried  by  assault, 
were  encumbered  with  hand-luggage,  bags,  parcels, 
picture-frames  containing  photographs  for  the  doors  of 
the  theaters,  heaped  up  in  the  racks,  under  the  seats,  in 
the  corridor;  and  there  was  a  constant  fire  of  "Hullo, 
girls!  Hullo,  boys!" 

The  Three  Graces,  standing  before  the  carriage-door, 
now  that  their  things  were  settled,  watched  this  tumult 
sadly,  especially  Thea.  What  was  it?  Nunkie's  absence? 
No,  but  poor  Lily  had  been  kicked  out  by  her  husband,  so 
they  heard,  and  turned  out  by  her  mother  as  well :  was  it 
possible?  Lily  was  dead  or  vanished,  they  didn't  know 
which;  they  were  told  about  it  at  the  theater;  a  stage- 
hand had  met  her  near  St.  Martin's  Lane,  in  a  small 
street,  with  her  hair  undone  and  her  hat  on  the  back  of 
her  head,  crying,  biting  her  handkerchief,  drunk,  appar- 
ently, and  running  in  the  direction  of  the  Thames.  And, 
since  then,  they  had  had  no  news  of  her. 

"Poor  Lily,  what  can  she  have  done,  what  can  have 
happened  ?"  sighed  Thea.  "Poor  Lily,  she  was  always  so 
nice!" 

Thea  could  have  cried  for  sadness. 

The  start  caused  a  diversion.  The  collector  punched 
the  tickets : 

"Blackpool?    Glasgow?" 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

The  Three  Graces  stepped  in,  the  engine  whistled.  But 
a  porter  rushed  past,  pushing  before  him,  with  a  rum- 
bling like  thunder,  a  huge  trunk  on  a  barrow.  Thea 
turned  her  head  and  a  name  in  scarlet  letters  caught  her 
eyes :  "Miss  Lily !"  And,  running  after  the  trunk,  mag- 
nificently bedecked,  in  a  hat  all  feathers  and  gold  tassels, 
who?  What?  Lily!  Lily  herself,  red  and  out  of  breath, 
leading  her  bike  with  one  hand,  carrying  an  umbrella  in 
the  other,  and  Glass-Eye,  her  arms  stretched  wide  with 
parcels,  following  in  her  train!  Just  time  to  throw  her 
bike  to  the  porter  in  the  luggage-van  and  quick,  quick, 
Lily  came  scudding  back,  hustled  along  by  the  train-mas- 
ter! She  would  have  missed  the  start,  were  it  not  for 
Thea,  who  opened  the  door  and,  with  her  arms  of  steel, 
gripped  her  as  she  passed : 

"Hullo,  Lily !    That's  a  good  girl !    Quick !" 

Lily  leaped  into  the  carriage  with  a  bound.  Glass-Eye, 
entangled  in  her  parcels,  had,  amid  general  laughter,  to 
be  dragged  by  main  force,  through  the  narrow  doorway, 
like  a  piece  of  luggage.  Oof,  just  in  time  .  .  .  Off- 
they  were ! 

In  the  railway-carriage  was  nothing  but  gaiety  and 
handshaking  and  ingenuous  questions : 
1     "Traveling  by   yourself?     Where's    Trampy?     And 
your  Pa  and  Ma  ?    So  you're  not  dead,  eh  ?" 

"Certainly  not,"  said  Lily.  "If  they  had  come  to  annoy 
me  at  the  station,  I'd  have  shown  them  if  I  was  alive  or 
dead !  I  was  ready  for  them !" 

And  she  brandished  her  umbrella. 

Then  she  had  to  make  herself  comfortable,  to  find 
room  for  all  her  belongings  as  best  she  could.  Lily 
pushed  Glass-Eye  about,  like  a  fine  lady  used  to  being 
waited  on : 


INTERMEZZO  213 

"Here,  take  my  hat,  Glass-Eye ;  hang-  it  up.  Take  my 
wrist-bag.  Wait,  give  me  my  handkerchief  first !" 

To  look  at  Lily,  all  fresh  and  rosy,  one  would  never 
have  suspected  the  trials  she  had  passed  through,  but  a 
few  days  ago.  Still  quite  flustered  with  that  hurried  de- 
parture, she  smiled  as  she  watched  the  Three  Graces,  who, 
on  their  side,  were  carefully  folding  up  their  cloaks.  And 
the  train  rushed  on,  rushed  on  through  deep  cuttings, 
dashed  through  deserted  stations  .  .  .  and  then,  sud- 
denly, entered  a  tunnel.  Lily,  but  for  the  noise  of  the 
wheels,  would  have  seen  herself  as  she  had  been  that  night. 
Oh,  she  would  never  forget  it !  It  clutched  at  her  heart. 
She  clenched  her  fists  with  anger.  Turned  out  by 
Trampy!  Insulted  by  her  Ma!  Flouted  by  Jimmy,  that 
mean  cur!  Oh,  when  she  left  his  place,  a  few  days  ago, 
she  felt  like  a  madwoman !  Her  first  idea  was  to  disappear, 
to  take  a  header  into  the  black  water !  But,  ugh,  the  mud, 
the  cold !  And  then  the  hospital,  with  those  people  who 
cut  you  up!  She  must  also  show  Pa  and  Ma  whether  it 
was  through  her  gentlemen  friends  that  she  meant  to  earn 
more  by  herself  alone  than  they  and  all  their  rotten  troupe 
put  together.  Perhaps  Pa  and  Ma  would  come  to  her,  one 
day,  to  beg  their  bread !  But  Ma  must  first  ask  Lily's  par- 
don on  her  knees.  On  her  knees,  damn  it !  And,  in  despair, 
inwardly  raging,  her  chest  aching  with  grief  and  spite, 
Lily,  penniless,  but  brave  for  all  that  and  ready  for  the 
fray,  returned  to  her  hotel,  where,  to  her  great  surprise, 
she  found  some  one  waiting  for  her,  with  a  parcel  in  her 
hand. 

Lily  recognized  Glass-Eye. 

It  was,  indeed,  poor  Glass-Eye.  When  she  heard  what 
had  happened  and  that  Lily  would  starve  in  London  and  a 
jolly  good  thing  too,  that  she  could  sleep  in  Leicester 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 


Square  for  all  they  cared:  when  she  heard  this  behind 
the  door,  Glass-Eye  almost  fainted.  Without  a  word 
to  a  soul,  she  had  packed  up  her  parcel  and  gone  to  join 
Lily;  and  Lily,  in  her  misery,  cried  for  joy  when  she  saw 
the  decent  girl,  who  offered  her  her  savings,  twelve  shil- 
lings in  all,  saying  : 

"Take  me  with  you,  Miss  Lily;  I'll  wait  on  you  for 
nothing.  Take  me,  take  me  !" 

Oh,  not  to  feel  alone,  to  have  some  one  beside  you  who 
loves  you  :  that  had  consoled  Lily.  .  .  . 

The  next  day,  accompanied  by  Glass-Eye,  she  called 
on  the  agents,  in  the  Leicester  Square  quarter,  at  the 
risk  of  meeting  Pa,  or  Trampy,  or  Jimmy;  but  who 
cared?  With  her  umbrella  in  her  hand,  she  feared  no- 
body and  did  not  give  a  fig  for  any  of  them. 

Nothing  for  her  at  Harrasford's,  where  the  Warwicks 
were  starring.  Very  well,  she'd  come  back  again  some 
other  time  !  And  straight  on  to  Bill  and  Boom's  in  Whit- 
comb  Mansions,  below  Jimmy.  As  she  climbed  the 
stairs,  Lily  screwed  up  her  eyes,  like  a  short-sighted  per- 
son, for  fear  of  meeting  Jimmy,  prepared  a  haughty  atti- 
tude ;  but  she  saw  no  one.  She  was  not  kept  waiting, 
was  shown  in  at  once  to  Boom's  office.  Lily  Clifton? 
the  New  Zealander  on  Wheels?  Straight  away  a 
contract!  And  Lily  left  with  twenty  music-halls 
in  her  pocket!  Liverpool,  Birmingham,  Sheffield  and 
so  on  :  a  week  in  each  town,  beginning  on  Monday  next. 
And  that  was  how  she  got  engagements  through  her  gen- 
tlemen friends  ! 

The  next  day,  she  borrowed  some  money  on  her  con- 
tracts from  the  Brixton  financier:  "loans  from  five 
pounds  upward,  in  the  strictest  confidence."  Then,  pro- 
posed and  seconded  by  two  artistes,  she  joined  the  Variety 


INTERMEZZO  215 

Artistes'  Federation  and,  in  return  for  ten  shillings,  re- 
ceived the  red  card  of  membership.  She  paid  another  ten 
shillings  and  the  same  for  Glass-Eye,  her  maid,  to  the  M. 
H.  A.  R.  A.  and  obtained  the  right,  for  one  year,  to  travel 
at  reduced  fares,  including  an  insurance  against  accidents : 
five  hundred  pounds  to  her  heirs  in  case  of  death — her 
heirs! — and  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  if  she  lost  a 
hand  or  foot  in  a  railway  accident ;  and  one  hundred  and 
fifty  for  a  serious  injury.  Then  she  bought  a  big  golly- 
wog,  for  her  dressing-room,  and  a  little  lucky  charm 
for  her  watch-chain — a  closed  black  hand,  with  the 
thumb  between  the  fingers,  as  a  preservative  against  falls 
— and  with  that  and  her  bike  she  would  have  set  out  for 
India  and  Australia  as  calmly  as  she  might  have  taken  the 
omnibus  to  Earl's  Court. 

Oh  yes,  she  had  done  a  deal  in  those  few  days  and, 
above  all,  she  had  got  out  of  her  difficulties,  thanks,  to 
a  certain  extent,  to  Glass-Eye,  who  had  comforted  her. 
And  besides,  hang  it,  that  was  all  over  now !  The  wor- 
ries were  forgotten,  and,  as  the  train  emerged  from  the 
tunnel,  Lily,  with  her  arm  round  Glass-Eye's  waist,  was 
patting  that  decent  girl  and  Glass-Eye  lifted  her  one  good 
eye  to  Lily,  while  the  other,  the  glass  one,  gazing  fixedly 
at  the  door,  reflected  the  thinly  scattered  houses  and  the 
beginning  of  the  country. 

Lily,  when  she  had  recovered  a  little  from  her  mad 
rush,  lay  down  at  full  length  among  her  bags,  parcels 
and  bandboxes.  She  laughed  with  the  Three  Graces ; 
and  there  was  no  one  there  to  interfere  with  them ; 
there  they  were,  by  themselves,  among  themselves,  alone 
in  the  compartment,  a  regular,  rollicking  school-girls' 
picnic.  Lily  made  them  scream  by  telling  them  about 
her  life  since  they  had  last  seen  her.  She  felt  a  need  for 


216  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

a  reaction  of  gaiety,  after  her  sadness  of  the  days  just 
past.  The  Graces  fixed  their  round  eyes  upon  her,  upon 
that  Lily  who  was  so  thoroughly  up  in  all  sorts  of  things 
which  they  knew  only  by  hearsay:  men,  love.  A  life  fit 
to  kill  a  horse ;  and  a  ^very  nice  girl,  for  all  that :  a  kind  of 
forbidden  fruit,  pink  and  fair-haired,  soft  to  the  touch; 
and  no  jealousy  between  them,  friendship  rather,  a  rare 
thing,  in  the  "Profession"  .  .  . 

Lily  grew  excited  in  talking,  told  of  her  successes,  the 
receptions,  the  teas  she  used  to  give  in  her  drawing-room, 
in  Berlin,  when  she  was  ill.  Jossers,  according  to  her, 
would  have  paid  any  price  to  have  been  there !  It  would 
form  a  subject  of  conversation  over  there  for  many  a 
long  day  to  come.  And  then  her  journeys,  her  impres- 
sions of  the  continent — "Jam  with  your  meat,  my  dear !" 
— and  such  clean  dressing-rooms  in  Germany ;  very  se- 
vere managers,  though :  gee,  harder  than  Pas.  But  very 
good  to  her,  all  the  same.  The  Battenberg  at  Leipzig: 
nothing  but  leading  turns ;  and  she  had  topped  the  bill  at 
Leipzig!  And  to  see  all  those  people  eating,  during  the 
show,  when  you  were  hungry  yourself,  had  a  very  funny 
effect  upon  you.  By  the  way,  she  didn't  like  that  system  of 
being  lodged  and  boarded  by  the  management;  it  was 
all  very  well  for  those  people ;  but  none  of  that  for  her : 
give  her  a  nice  flat  in  town  or  a  smart  hotel !  Once  she 
was  started,  Lily  never  stopped,  called  Glass-Eye  to  wit- 
ness, went  on  telling  of  her  life  in  Berlin ;  how  Jimmy 
had  fallen  in  love  with  her  when  he  saw  her  on  the  stage, 
and  he  had  the  cheek  to  want  her  to  run  away  with  him ; 
but  who  got  a  box  on  the  ear  that  day,  eh  ?  She  perhaps : 
yes,  rather,  over  the  left!  And  Jimmy  and  Trampy  had 
fought  for  her !  So  had  all  the  pros,  worse  than  dogs  in 
September ! 


INTERMEZZO  217 

"What  a  rotten  lot !"  concluded  Lily. 

"My,  how  you've  changed !"  said  Thea.  "You  used  to 
be  so  fond  of  men." 

"I  give  it  them  where  they  deserve,"  said  Lily,  slap- 
ping her  firm,  round  hips. 

And  they  laughed  noisily  at  Lily's  anger  when,  with 
her  shoulder  drawn  back  and  her  arm  ready  to  strike,  she 
spoke  of  breaking  the  jaws  of  those  two  scoundrels. 

"Go  it!  Hit  me!"  said  Thea,  putting  forward  her 
deltoid  muscle.  "Hit  away!  You'll  only  smash  your 
wrist !" 

And  then  those  Spartans  calmed  down,  asked  one  an- 
other for  news  of  absent  friends,  talked  about  different 
people  they  had  known,  all  over  the  place,  on  the  stage : 
their  conversation  always  came  round  to  the  profession. 
Lily,  with  greater  refinement,  sometimes  tried  to  discuss 
dress :  tulle  ruches  were  to  be  worn  this  year,  she  heard ; 
feather  boas.  The  Graces  knew  nothing  about  that,  stuck 
to  their  "Did  you  ever  know  .  .  .  ?  Do  you  remem- 
ber ...  ?"  And  every  part  of  the  world  was  mixed 
up  in  their  talk:  India,  Tasmania,  Mexico,  South  Wales, 
New  South  Wales,  York,  New  York,  Hampshire,  New 
Hampshire. 

"Did  you  know  Ave  Maria?"  asked  Lily. 

"No." 

But  they  mentioned  other  friends,  like  school-girls  living 
in  the  same  quarter ;  only,  for  them,  the  school,  the  quar- 
ter was  San  Francisco,  Chicago,  Berlin,  and  the  school- 
mates were  the  girl  in  a  knot,  who  had  sold  her  skeleton 
in  advance  to  the  Medical  College:  Marjutti,  the  double- 
knotted  girl,  to  whom  the  South  Kensington  Museum 
offered  five  hundred  pounds  for  a  cast  of  her  figure ; 
the  Pawnees,  who  had  just  won  a  treble  beauty  prize; 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

and  the  Laurence  girl,  whose  cruelly  daring  performance 
was  forbidden  by  the  Manchester  police ;  and  heaps  of 
others  whom  they  had  known  and  who,  at  that  moment, 
were  asleep  at  the  antipodes,  right  under  your  feet,  or 
waking  up  in  the  Far  West,  or  going  to  bed  in  the  Far 
East,  or  pitching  on  the  ocean,  or  rolling  in  express  trains 
toward  the  five  corners  of  the  earth.  And  their  own  trav- 
eling adventures,  the  Graces'  and  Lily's :  broken  railway- 
bridges!  ships  on  fire  at  sea!  towns  blazing  up  in  the 
night !  ropes  breaking,  falls  head-first,  my !  One  would 
have  thought  that  these  girls  of  seventeen  to  twenty  were 
South  Sea  pirates,  talking  of  hangings  and  tortures,  or, 
rather,  children  playing  at  frightening  one  another.  Lily, 
for  instance,  in  India :  two  eyes  glaring  at  her  in  the  dark, 
gee!  And,  in  New  York,  a  fall  into  a  mirror;  all  over 
blood ;  half  dead.  She  grew  excited,  in  her  desire  to  outdo 
Laurence  and  Crack-o'-Whip :  the  steel-buckled  belt,  the 
kicks  in  the  ribs !  Stories  of  brutal  treatment  picked  up  on 
every  side — from  the  Gilson  girl,  from  Ave  Maria,  from 
all  the  boys  and  all  the  girls  and  all  the  monkeys  who  had 
been  through  the  mill — she  made  every  one  of  them  her 
own,  served  them  up  hot  and  hot  to  the  astounded  Graces, 
talked  of  whole  days  spent  in  practising  on  rough,  uneven 
boards — "And  given  no  food,  was  I,  Glass-Eye?" — so 
much  so  that  she  would  sometimes  get  up  in  the  night 
and  go  and  pick  up  the  crusts  under  the  table,  gee !  Lily 
reveled  in  the  pitying  expressions  of  the  Three  Graces 
and  her  heart  swelled  with  pride  when  Thea,  greatly 
touched,  remarked  that,  in  such  cases,  it  would  have  been 
better  not  to  be  born. 

"You're  quite  right,"  said  Lily,  with  a  drooping  air; 
but  she  burst  into  a  peal  of  fresh,  young  laughter  when 
she  saw  Glass-Eye  overcome  with  emotion,  "What's 


INTERMEZZO  219 

that  ?"  asked  Lily,  giving  her  a  thump  in  the  ribs.  "Cry- 
ing? You  silly  cuckoo!" 

If  it  hadn't  been  for  her  Ma's  insults  and  Jimmy's  and 
Trampy's — when  it  all  came  back  to  her,  it  was  like  a 
needle  stuck  in  her  heart ! — Lily  would  have  been  in  the 
seventh  heaven !  No  more  Pa,  no  more  Ma,  no  more  any- 
body; no  boss,  no  prof,  no  husband,  nothing,  all  alone 
.  .  .  with  her  maid!  Certainly,  there  would  be  the 
worry  of  business,  looking  for  her  "digs,"  seeing  the 
agents,  writing  letters  and  so  on;  but  she  would  know 
how  to  put  herself  forward,  how  to  make  the  most  of  her 
work ;  and  she  smiled  as  she  reflected  how  little  all  those 
worries  meant,  compared  with  her  past  life:  and  she 
would  be  free,  free,  free  at  last.  She  was  going  to  earn 
money,  to  enjoy  life. 

And  the  train  rushed  on,  rushed  on  through  the  fields. 
Glass-Eye,  with  her  nose  glued  to  the  window,  was  aston- 
ished to  find  everything  so  large  outside  of  London :  red 
villages  decked  the  green  country-side;  and  then  came 
empty  railway  stations.  Sometimes  the  train  slowed  down : 
— a  large  silent  town  lay  spread  in  the  valley,  white  smoke 
rose  from  the  endless  roofs ;  homes,  more  homes ;  the  air 
of  rest,  the  empty  streets  and  the  indistinct  chimes  of 
the  church-bells  proclaimed  to  the  pale  heavens  the 
majesty  of  prayer.  Lily  listened  with  a  dreamy  air ;  it  all 
reminded  her  of  things : 

"It's  like  the  American  engines,"  she  said  to  the  Three 
Graces,  "that  used  to  ring  their  bells  when  they  passed 
through  Syracuse." 

But  the  train  rushed  on,  rushed  on  ...  And 
they  again  began  to  talk  shop,  as  always :  with,  here 
and  there,  an  excursion  into  the  cost  of  food.  The 
Graces,  just  then,  were  unpacking  their  lunch ;  and  Lily 


220  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

fetched  her  traveling  provisions  from  her  bag  in  the  cor- 
ridor. There  was  a  sound  of  clattering  plates  from  end 
to  end  of  the  train,  in  a  mist  of  tobacco-smoke.  Lily 
rejoined  the  party  very  quickly,  to  avoid  coming  in  con- 
tact with  the  pros,  and,  waited  on  by  Glass-Eve,  at- 
tacked her  meal  and  broke  her  bread  so  heartily  that  the 
crusts  flew  to  the  ceiling.  They  drank  out  of  the  same 
cup,  took  their  meat  in  their  hands,  Lily  saying  that  fin- 
gers were  made  before  forks.  They  chattered  noisily, 
with  the  time-honored  jokes  about  apples  and  bananas. 
They  made  Glass-Eye  talk  a  lot  of  nonsense.  Lily,  fling- 
ing back  her  head,  laughed  full-throated,  held  her  sides. 

"My!"  said  the  Graces.  "What  a  pity  that  we  are 
separating!  It  would  have  been  so  nice  to  travel  to- 
gether ;  one's  never  bored  with  you.  What  a  tomboy !" 

"  'K  you !"  said  Lily,  greatly  flattered,  with  a  stage 
curtsey. 

Unfortunately,  they  would  have  to  part  at  Warring- 
ton.  The  Graces  were  going  on  to  Glasgow,  Lily  was 
changing  for  Liverpool ;  a  few  moments  more  and  it  was 
good-by,  until  chance  .  .  . 

At  Lily's  request,  the  Graces  gave  her  a  few  last  words 
of  advice,  explained  the  system  of  the  pass-book  of  the 
Artistes'  Federation:  the  sixpenny  stamp  to  be  stuck  in 
the  little  square  every  week;  the  extra  stamp  at  each 
death  of  a  member,  for  the  benefit  of  the  heirs.  They 
talked  to  her  of  the  Friday  meetings  at  Manchester,  at 
which  every  artiste  can  speak  and  see  himself  printed 
afterward  in  the  London  Performer. 

"Good!"  thought  Lily.  "I  may  have  things  to  say. 
There  will  be  news  for  somebody !" 

The  Graces  had  a  "three  years'  book,"  the  profes- 
sional agenda,  with  nothing  but  Mondays  marked  on 


I N  T  E  R  M  E  Z  Z  O 

it  for  the  weekly  engagement:  8  January,  15  January 
and  so  on. 

"Yes,  I  know,"  said  Lily.  "Mine's  full  for  months 
ahead !" 

They  showed  her,  on  theirs,  the  last  pages  containing 
portrait  advertisements  of  famous  artistes:  the  Pawnees, 
Marjutti,  Laurence. 

"Oh,  if  I  could  get  there  one  day !"  thought  Lily.  "I'd 
post  it  to  Pa ;  it  would  be  the  death  of  him !" 

And  then  followed  the  thousand  and  one  details  of  the 
wandering  life :  your  name  on  the  red  list,  the  list  handed 
in  at  the  station ;  the  journeys  at  reduced  fares ;  the  music 
for  twelve  instruments,  forty  executants,  sent  on  to  the 
theater  a  fortnight  in  advance. 

"And  matinees  are  paid  for  now.  And  you  know,  Lily, 
in  the  Federation  you  can  get  a  solicitor  free." 

"That's  a  good  thing  to  know,"  thought  Lily,  "for  my 
divorce  from  that  rusty  biker !" 

Oh,  how  she  hated  pros,  now!  The  sight  of  them  in 
the  corridor,  looking  at  her  with  glistening  eyes,  made 
her  want  to  put  out  her  tongue  at  them!  But  she  pre- 
ferred not  to  see : 

"I  don't  like  to  seem  stuck-up  with  them,  it's  not 
polite,"  she  observed. 

Nevertheless,  she  shrugged  her  shoulders  when  one  of 
them  who,  no  doubt,  had  known  her  when  she  was  "that 
high,"  blew  kisses  to  her  from  the  tips  of  his  fingers,  with 
a  gesture  straight  at  her  heart,  through  the  window. 

And  the  train  rushed  on,  rushed  on.  They  were  near- 
ing  Warrington.  The  slopes,  on  either  side,  bristled  with 
chimneys  and  houses,  houses,  endless  roofs  ...  a 
Lancashire  rid  of  its  black  smoke,  like  an  extinct  and 
silent  crater  .  .  .  Warrington ! 


222  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

A  few  minutes'  wait.  There  was  a  general  hustle,  pros 
stretching  their  legs,  running  to  the  refreshment-room 
for  a  drink,  some  seeking  seats  in  the  train,  others  saying 
good-by : 

"Write  to  me,  eh?  Cathedral  Hotel,  Melbourne." 

And  a  shake  of  the  hand ;  so  long ;  perhaps  for  ever. 
More  basket  trunks  were  being  trundled  down  the  plat- 
form. A  wife  was  leaving  her  husband :  six  months, 
twelve  months,  without  meeting ;  who  could  tell  ?  Or  else, 
perhaps,  between  two  trains,  as  the  luck  of  the  tours 
would  have  it ;  and  they  seemed  very  fond  of  each  other, 
too;  Lily  thought  it  very  pretty.  But  she  had  other 
things  to  do  than  sentimentalize.  She  handed  out  her 
parcels  to  Glass-Eye  and  then,  standing  on  the  platform, 
said  good-by  to  the  Three  Graces : 

"Hope  you'll  have  a  good  journey!  Aurevoir!  Send 
me  some  post-cards,"  said  Lily.  "Address  them  to  the 
theater,  I  love  that !  Good-by !  Ta-ta !" 

The  train  started.  Lily  waved  her  handkerchief  to  the 
Three  Graces. 

One  more  separation;  one  more  little  rent:  Lily  had 
had  so  many  in  her  life.  As  far  back  as  she  could  re- 
member there  had  been  heads  at  the  carriage-window, 
like  that;  ships  standing  out  to  sea;  trains  rushing  into 
the  night.  But,  this  time,  she  was  alone,  with  her  maid. 
And  she  drew  herself  up  proudly,  like  a  lady  who  had  a 
sense  of  her  responsibilities.  A  new  life  was  opening  be- 
fore Lily,  as  before  a  girl  just  coming  out.  Poor  Lily, 
a  girl  still,  in  her  way,  yes,  with,  for  her  portion,  a  feather 
in  her  hat,  a  gollywog  in  her  trunk,  a  pair  of  supple  legs 
and  nerves  of  steel,  unerring  and  exact,  trained  to  turn 
round  and  round 


CHAPTER  II 

"Liverpool!  Come  along,  Glass-Eye!"  said  Lily,  jog- 
ging her  maid  in  the  ribs. 

Glass-Eye,  half  asleep,  clumsily  gathered  up  her  par- 
cels, while  Lily  looked  round  for  the  baggage-man.  On 
the  platform  was  an  avalanche  of  bags,  boxes,  picture- 
frames,  as  at  the  departure  from  Euston ;  the  basket 
trunks  were  being  piled  up  in  the  theater-vans.  Lily 
pointed  out  her  hamper  and  her  bike  to  the  boy  from  the 
theater,  who  had  come  to  meet  the  "program"  at  the  sta- 
tion. 

"Are  you  the  bicyclist?" 

"I  am,"  replied  Lily  modestly. 

She  gave  her  address :  not  the  pros'  boarding-house, 
but  private  "digs"  which  had  been  recommended  to  her 
in  London,  with  a  note  of  introduction.  Then  she  walked 
out  of  the  station,  followed  by  Glass-Eye. 

Lily  knew  Liverpool,  vaguely,  as  she  knew  all  the 
towns  of  the  United  Kingdom  and  those  of  America,  too, 
and  Australia  and  India  and  Germany  and  Holland  and 
elsewhere.  They  were  all  muddled  up  in  her  memory,  she 
had  seen  so  many,  and  made  as  it  were  one  great  city, 
but  for  occasional  salient  points,  as  in  the  towns  which 
you  came  to  in  a  boat,  or  those  in  which  you  had  a  circus 
parade,  or  others  still,  here  and  there:  Glasgow,  where 
she  had  fallen  and  broken  a  tooth ;  Blackpool  with  its 
ball-rooms,  its  tower  and  a  "contract!"  Sheffield,  with 

223 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

its  smoking  chimneys;  Washington,  with  a  dome  at  the 
end ;  New  York,  with  its  sky-scrapers.  The  towns  of  her 
early  childhood,  leaning  against  mountains,  buried  under 
trees,  were  more  remote,  more  like  a  dream.  Elephants, 
monkeys,  harnessed  buffaloes ;  and  then  Mexico  and  Ave 
Maria,  London  and  those  footy  rotters ! 

Liverpool  was  Lime  Street :  Lily  remembered  a  sort  of 
round  church ;  when  you  got  to  that,  you  turned  to  the 
left.  She  soon  found  the  house  and  received  from  a  huge, 
full-blown  lady  the  friendly  welcome  which  Lily's  artless 
air  and  fair  curls  always  insured  her.  No  gentleman 
with  them?  All  alone  by  themselves?  A  room  with  a 
big  double  bed,  a  little  parlor  with  a  bow- window;  six- 
teen shillings  a  week,  including  the  use  of  the  kitchen. 
Just  then,  the  baggage-man  arrived,  took  the  trunk  up 
to  the  room  and  went  on  with  the  bike  to  the  pros'  board- 
ing-house and  the  theater.  Lily,  assisted  by  Glass-Eye, 
fixed  herself  up  for  the  week:  her  dresses  on  the  pegs, 
her  linen  safe  under  lock  and  key  in  the  hamper.  Then 
she  made  a  special  parcel  of  things  for  the  stage:  paper 
flowers,  ostrich  feathers,  white  laced  boots. 

"There,  wrap  that  up  in  my  petticoat,"  said  Lily.  "And 
the  music  and  the  gollywog :  you  can  bring  all  that  to  my 
dressing-room  to-morrow  morning." 

Next,  Lily  made  herself  look  smart,  freshened  up  her 
two  bows,  threw  her  green  muslin  scarf  over  her  shoul- 
ders and  went  down  to  the  parlor  to  pick  out  her  favorite 
tunei — The  Bluebells  of  Scotland — with  one  finger  on  the 
piano.  Meanwhile,  the  landlady  spread  the  cloth :  bread, 
marmalade,  watercress,  two  eggs.  Then,  according  to  in- 
structions received,  Glass-Eye  announced  to  Miss  Lily 
that  tea  was  ready.  Lily  affably  invited  Glass-Eye  to  sit 
down  to  table  with  her;  and  the  two  ate  away  like 


INTERMEZZO 


friends.  Lily  took  the  opportunity  to  settle  her  expenses ; 
for  instance — and  this  she  insisted  upon — if  she,  Lily, 
took  a  maid,  she  wouldn't 
have  her  for  nothing;  she 
intended  to  pay  her  some 
small  monthly  wage. 

"And  a  good  many  little 
perquisites  besides,  you 
understand,  Glass-Eye ;  my 
old  frocks,  my  hats." 

Glass-Eye  did  not  ask 
that,  would  have  given  her 
other  eye  to  serve  Miss  Lily. 

Lily  was  still  asleep,  at 
twelve  o'clock  the  next 
morning,  when  Glass-Eye 
entered  the  room.  She  had 
lost  her  way,  had  walked 
miles,  had  been  to  the  land- 
ing-stage of  the  music- 
hall.  .  .  . 

"At  what  time's  rehear- 
sal ?"  asked  Lily. 

"At  one  o'clock,  Miss 
Lily." 

"And  you  let  me  sleep 
till  twelve,  when  I  have  so 
much  to  do!"  said  Lily. 
"Go  and  get  breakfast 
ready  .  .  .  or  you'd 
better  mind  yourself !" 

And    Lily   put   out   h( 
hand  to  lay  hold  of  a  boot ; 
but  Glass-Eye  was  gone. 


GLASS-EYE  MAUD 


226  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Lily,  while  dressing,  reflected  upon  her  new  responsi- 
bilities, upon  the  way  in  which  servants  should  be  treated. 
No  familiarity ;  not  too  severe,  either ;  and  no  smackings 
.  .  .  that  is  to  say  .  .  .  however  .  .  . 

"I  must  dress  her  simply,"  thought  Lily.  "My  hats, 
but  without  the  feathers ;  coarse  thread  gloves ;  and  she 
must  always  carry  a  parcel." 

Lily  was  eager  to  go  to  rehearsal,  accompanied  by  her 
maid.  There  is  no  rehearsing  at  "rehearsal :"  the  "times," 
the  scenic  effects  are  settled  with  the  conductor  of  the 
band ;  there  are  no  bare  arms  or  bloomers  practising 
on  their  carpets :  a  few  dark  groups,  in  ordinary  walking 
dress;  others,  in  their  shirt  sleeves,  are  opening  boxes, 
and  no  mystery,  no  shifting  lights:  the  stage  and  the 
house  one  wan  hole,  except  the  red  and  gold  note  of  the 
curtain  and  the  black  mass  of  the  musicians,  with  the 
gleaming  brasses. 

The  artistes  went  up  to  the  conductor,  one  after  the 
other,  and  explained  their  "turns :" 

"When  I  come  on,  this  tune,  soft,  six  times,  to  begin 
with ;  then,  once,  loud.  When  I  go  off  .  .  .  a  roll 
of  drums." 

The  band,  each  time,  played  two  or  three  bars,  me- 
chanically, at  sight;  then  it  was  understood  and  .  .  . 
next,  please. 

Lily  had  seen  this  before,  but  not  under  these  condi- 
tions; not  dressed  as  at  present;  not  accompanied  by  a 
maid.  She  listened  as  hard  as  she  could  when  she  walked 
on  to  the  stage,  caught  the  remarks,  enjoyed  the  impres- 
sion which  she  produced.  They  seemed  to  ask : 

"Who  is  it?  A  singer?  A  dancer?" 

"No,  Lily ;  Miss  Lily,  you  know." 

She  guessed  all  that.    Then: 


INTERMEZZO  227 

"My  score,  Maud!" 

And,  leaning  toward  the  orchestra,  she  explained,  in 
her  turn :  pizzicati,  mazurka,  frog,  swan,  back-wheel,  the 
waltz  for  the  twirls,  the  march  for  the  exit.  And 
Lily  withdrew  with  a  half-curtsey  and  a  pretty  smile. 
Next,  she  put  out  her  things  in  her  dressing-room,  on 
the  table,  before  the  looking-glass :  brushes,  pencils, 
grease-paints,  strings  of  pearls  for  her  hair.  She 
hung  a  cord  from  the  door  to  the  window,  to  dry  her 
tights  on,  when  she  washed  a  pair  in  the  basin.  She  got 
out  her  little  work-box,  in  case  of  anything  tearing, 
threaded  a  needle,  freshened  up  the  knots  of  her  ribbons, 
pinned  photographs  and  p.-c.'s  on  the  wall.  And,  over 
all,  she  hung  her  gollywog,  a  hairy  doll,  white-collared, 
red-waistcoated,  with,  in  its  black  face,  under  the 
bristling  hair,  two  shining  tacks  by  way  of  eyes.  It 
was  the  protecting  idol.  Not  that  Lily,  ever  faithful  to  the 
Qiurch  of  England,  believed  much  in  gollywogs ;  but,  like 
most  music-hall  people,  she  felt  safer  when  she  knew  it 
was  there.  And  her  dressing-room,  with  the  spangled 
skirts  and  the  tights  hanging  down  like  flayed  skins,  sug- 
gested some  strange,  exotic  chapel  in  which  a  fetish  sat 
enthroned. 

After  that,  Lily  had  nothing  left  to  do.  She  went  out 
with  Glass-Eye  and  walked  round  to  the  front  to  look  at 
her  lithos.  She  saw  to  her  annoyance  that  a  serio  was 
topping  the  bill — and  a  comic  singer  middling  it  and 
a  cinematograph  bottoming  it.  But  no  matter,  she  had 
a  good  place,  just  under  the  bill-topper. 

Next  came  shopping,  through  the  windows.  She 
bought  a  pair  of  thread  gloves  for  Glass-Eye  at  Lewis's 
and  then  went  in  and  lay  on  her  bed,  feeling  ever 
50  tired  from  getting  up  late  that  morning.  She 


228  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

dreamed  and  dreamed,  while  Glass-Eye  went  market- 
ing. As  soon  as  Lily  was  alone,  the  thought  pricked  her 
like  a  pin  :  looking  pretty,  indeed !  Her  gentlemen  friends  ! 
Jimmy,  that  traitor,  and  Trampy !  Trampy  would  be 
sure  to  play  her  some  dirty  trick.  Oh,  if  she  could 
get  a  divorce  from  him,  in  spite  of  all !  She  had  made 
inquiries  in  London.  She  would  want  a  solicitor.  She 
must  have  one,  to  set  inquiries  on  foot.  .  .  .  She  could 
have  as  many  witnesses  as  she  pleased :  all  those  girls 
.  .  .  and  the  stage  hands  .  .  .  and  two  artistes, 
on  the  day  when  Trampy,  in  his  fury,  had  flung  his  bike 
at  her  on  the  stairs ;  the  pedal  had  grazed  her  temple,  yes, 
at  Dresden.  That  wasn't  the  way  to  treat  a  lady.  Every- 
thing that  had  happened  was  his  fault ;  and  they'd  see 
who  won  the  day,  he  or  she.  Her  forehead  wrinkled 
up  with  anger  when  she  thought  of  it.  She  bit  her 
lips  and  clenched  her  fists  and  then  .  .  .  and  then 
.  .  .  enough  of  that !  She'd  see  to-morrow.  And  other 
cares  came  to  bother  her :  the  indispensable  things  which 
she  would  have  to  buy  at  the  end  of  the  week  out  of  her 
salary ;  open-work  stockings,  an  aigrette  for  the  theater,  a 
little  black  bog-oak  pig  to  wear  at  her  wrist.  And  Jimmy's 
thousand  marks  .  .  . 

"Damn  it,  let  him  wait !"  And,  with  her  hand  on  her 
lucky  charm,  Lily  fell  asleep. 

In  the  evening,  at  the  theater,  she  forgot  everything. 
She  felt  a  longing,  a  fevered  desire  to  appear.  When  her 
turn  came,  after  the  xylophones,  who  seemed,  behind  their 
tables  laden  with  bottles,  to  be  keeping  a  bar  of  musical 
sounds;  when  the  light  shining  on  the  great  back-drop 
threw  up  into  dazzling  relief  the  blue  sea,  the  blue  sky  and 
the  white  colonnade  and  terraces ;  when,  amid  the  flash  of 
the  lime-light  and  the  thunder  of  the  orchestra,  she  made 


INTERMEZZO  229 

her  entrance  on  the  stage,  Lily  had  a  smile  of  triumph. 
Life  was  beginning  for  her  at  last !  She  could  have  cried 
out  for  happiness  to  that  human  mass  which,  behind  the 
flaming  streak  of  the  footlights,  spread  itself,  bare- 
necked and  bedizened,  in  the  warm  shadow  of  the  front 
boxes.  And  she  directed  a  scarlet  smile,  set  off  with  a 
glint  of  gold,  to  the  audience. 

"I  believe  I  was  grand  to-night,"  said  Lily,  as  she  went 
off,  out  of  breath.  "Oh,  if  there  had  been  an  agent  in  the 
house !  But  no  such  luck :  they're  never  there  when  they're 
wanted !  And  those  two  fellows,"  she  thought  to  her- 
self. "If  they  had  been  there,  they'd  have  died  of  jeal- 
ousy." 

Everybody  spoiled  her.  She  needed  a  strong  head 
to  resist  the  flatteries  with  which  she  was  overwhelmed, 
both  as  artiste  and  woman.  For  instance,  when  a  row 
of  Roofers  were  puffing  away  on  the  stage,  some  man- 
ager, who  had  known  her  when  she  was  "that  high,"  was 
sure  to  observe  that  her  talent,  her  firm,  round  hips — 
"Eh,  Lily,  you've  got  plenty  of  that  now !"  .  .  .  Lily 
blushed  under  the  compliment — would  make  more  im- 
pression than  a  whole  herd  of  Roofers : 

"Eh,  Lily  ?  I  say,  what  are  you  doing  to-night  ?  Come 
and  have  some  ..." 

"Glass-Eye,  my  handkerchief,"  Lily  broke  in,  suspect- 
ing an  invitation  to  supper. 

Glass-Eye,  in  obedience  to  a  gesture  of  Lily's,  opened 
the  wrist-bag,  gave  Lily  the  lace  handkerchief  and  Lily 
hid  her  mocking  smile  in  a  scented  gesture.  Then : 

"Good-by.    Ta-ta!" 

And  they  shook  hands,  like  good  friends,  nothing 
more. 

Glass-Eye  frightened  off  the  admirers  with  her  fixed 


230  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

stare.  And  Lily  had  no  lack  of  them.  She  loved  flirt- 
ing. She  wanted  adulation,  wanted  to  be  made  much 
of.  She  had  a  revenge  to  take,  arrears  to  make  up ;  she 
and  sympathy  had,  till  then,  been  strangers.  She  now 
took  her  fill  of  it,  got  carried  away,  saw  nothing  but  lov- 
ers around  her,  three  or  four  at  a  time,  as  when  the  comic 
quartet,  the  Out-of-Tunes,  used  to  grin  kisses  to  her  in 
the  street.  It  was  for  her  that  they  were  there,  every 
one  of  them,  down  to  the  acting  managers,  who  did  not 
disdain  to  come  round  from  the  front  and  take  a  turn  on 
the  stage.  It  might  be  a  question  of  steam-pipes  or  elec- 
tric wires;  no  matter,  Lily  took  it  all  to  herself,  made 
herself  amiable  toward  their  dress-coats  and  white  shirt- 
fronts,  and  said  "  'K  you !"  with  the  great  stage  bow,  the 
body  bent  in  a  sweeping  curtsey,  when  they  complimented 
her  on  her  firm,  round  hips.  She  stabbed  them  with 
smiles,  to  make  sure  of  complimentary  phrases  in  their 
weekly  reports  to  the  central  boards.  All  of  them ; 
the  electrician,  the  conductor  of  the  band,  she  had  them 
all  at  her  feet.  It  became  a  need  for  Lily  to  see  people 
all  around  her  dying  for  love.  It  gave  her  a  feeling  of 
mingled  pride  and  remorse. 

"Can  I  help  it,  Glass-Eye?"  she  would  ask,  to  quiet 
her  conscience.  "They're  mad.  They  would  leave  their 
wives  and  children  for  me!" 

She  had  an  autograph  album  filled  with  "thoughts" 
and  declarations : 

"I  love  you !    Je  vous  aime!    Ich  liebe  dich!" 

Lily,  now  that  the  audience  was  good  for  invita- 
tions to  supper,  bouquets  and  sweets,  occupied  herself 
with  that  somber  mass  which,  formerly,  did  not  cause 
her  so  much  uneasiness  as  the  presence  of  her  Pa.  Lily, 


INTERMEZZO  231 

like  a  real  stage-girl,  who  had  beheld  waves  miles  high 
between  Harwich  and  the  Hook  of  Holland,  saw  in  a 
few  flowers  a  bouquet  large  enough  to  fill  a  cab  and  the 
least  little  love  letter  grew,  in  her  eyes,  into  an  offer  to 
present  her  with  motor-cars  and  to  abandon  wife  and 
child.  If  a  gentleman,  for  once  in  a  way,  stood  on  the 
pavement  waiting  for  her,  she  dreamed  of  an  elopement. 
And  there  were  pros,  too,  who  prowled  around  her,  in 
the  half  light  of  the  wings,  and  came  up  to  her  with 
outstretched  hand: 

"Hullo,  Mrs.  Trampy!" 

"Call  me  Miss  Lily,"  she  said,  in  a  vexed  voice. 
"That's  the  name  I'm  known  by." 

And  many  of  them  did  know  her,  in  fact,  from  having 
talked  about  her  in  Fourteenth  Street  in  New  York,  or 
in  State  Street  at  Sidney,  or  in  the  theaters  in  South 
Africa,  for  that  story  of  the  whippings  had  traveled  all 
around  the  world,  under  the  folds  of  the  Union  Jack. 
Some  proposed  to  take  her  with  them  in  their  show,  or  to 
go  with  her  to  clean  her  bike,  instead  of  Glass-Eye : 

"Is  it  a  bargain  ?" 

"Yes,  I  don't  think!"  said  Lily. 

Another,  just  off  for  Melbourne,  told  her  that,  in 
Australia,  you  could  find  fire-escapes  to  marry  you  for 
half-a-crown.  They  joked  without  constraint,  in  the 
pros'  smoking-room,  a  small  and  dark  corner  between 
the  house  and  the  stage.  .  .  .  All  of  them,  all  the  pros, 
she  had  them  all  at  her  feet ;  but  she  didn't  care  for  that 
sort  and  she  sent  them  all  to  eat  coke. 

The  months  all  passed  alike.  She  had  finished  the 
Bill  and  Boom  tour.  She  continued  in  the  private 
music-halls,  from  north  to  south,  from  east  to  west  of 


232          THE  BILL-TOPPER'S 

England.  In  spite  of  Glass-Eye's  impossible  cooking  and 
the  everlasting  ham  sandwiches  and  pork-pies  of  the  rail- 
way station  refreshment  rooms,  Lily  grew  plumper  and 
plumper,  her  nervous  leanness  filled  out,  with  pigeon's 
eggs  and  ostrich's  eggs  everywhere,  in  front  and  behind. 
She  did  not  kill  herself  with  work.  Once,  in  Glasgow,  at 
a  music-hall  where,  a  few  weeks  earlier,  Laurence  had 
had  a  terrible  fall,  lying  unconscious  for  two  whole  hours, 
the  frightened  manager  said  : 

"No  dangerous  tricks,  mind!  They  only  get  us  into 
trouble !" 

Another  time,  she  was  given  only  seven  minutes, 
watch  in  hand,  on  the  stage. 

"Couldn't  you  cut  that  little  trick  ?  You  know  the  one 
I  mean,"  said  the  manager. 

He  called  a  little  trick  a  performance  which  it  had 
cost  her  eighteen  months'  hard  practice  and  no  end  of 
bruises  to  learn.  Lily  did  not  wait  to  be  asked  twice. 
She  cut  as  desired  and  thought  it  a  jolly  lot  easier  to  trot 
round  quietly,  as  though  out  for  a  ride,  with  pretty  smiles 
to  the  audience.  She  ended  by  paying  more  attention  to 
her  dresses  than  to  her  work : 

"It's  not  so  much  what  one  does,"  she  said,  "as  the  way 
one  does  it." 

The  sympathy  with  which  she  was  surrounded  un- 
manned the  Spartan  in  her.  She  strove  to  please,  no 
longer  gave  her  performance  for  herself,  like  a  machine, 
unerring  and  exact.  Already  in  a  few  months,  she  was 
spoiled.  She  looked  for  adventitious  successes.  She  said, 
"The  audience  is  very  cold  at  Birmingham,"  because  she 
was  not  asked  out  to  supper,  and,  "They  do  like  artistes 
at  Sheffield,  gee!"  because  a  gentleman  had  sent  her 
champagne  and  flowers  in  Jier  dressing-room. 


In  the  pros'  smoking-room      Page  231 


INTERMEZZO  233 

In  the  towns  where  she  played  three  times  a  day — a 
matinee  and  two  night  turns — she  gave  half  of  her  per- 
formance, cut  whatever  was  dangerous  or  tiring.  She 
never  practised  now ;  just  went  down  in  the  morning  to 
fetch  her  letters  at  the  theater,  where  she  loved  receiv- 
ing them,  post-cards  especially,  which  any  one  could 
read.  She  said  to  the  jossers : 

"Send  me  lots;  talk  about  motor-cars  and  champagne 
suppers :  that  drives  the  pros  wild." 

She  left  them  lying  on  the  table,  or  else  walked  about 
on  the  stage,  with  her  letters  in  her  hand,  like  a  lady 
overwhelmed  with  offers,  with  invitations.  If,  by  any 
chance,  she  went  to  the  practice  at  the  end  of  the  week, 
it  was  to  display  her  hat,  her  new  boots;  and  she 
laughed  to  herself  when  she  saw  the  artistes,  each  on 
his  carpet,  fagging  away  like  mad.  She  felt  like  a 
fine  lady  visiting  a  boarding-school,  among  those  little 
girls  practising  their  flip-flaps  or  gluing  themselves 
to  the  wall  to  try  their  back-bendings.  The  pride  of  a 
Marjutti,  who,  they  said,  tortured  her  spinal  column  to 
achieve  a  double  knot;  the  inordinate  ambition  of  a 
Laurence,  risking  her  life  for  the  pleasure  of  risking  it, 
were  things  which  she  did  not  understand.  And  then 
all  those  accidents!  Dolly  Pawnee,  the  other  day,  had 
broken  her  arm  at  the  New  York  Hippodrome ;  the  Gil- 
son  girl  had  fallen  on  her  head  at  Budapest.  They 
were  mad,  thought  Lily,  to  do  all  that  without  being 
obliged  to !  No,  no ;  no  more  of  that  for  her !  The  last 
thing  she  wanted  was  to  spoil  her  face,  seeing  that  she 
had  nothing  but  her  smile  to  keep  her.  And  Lily  grew 
timid,  looked  upon  herself  more  and  more  as  a  very 
precious  little  thing.  She  gave  herself  terrible  airs  on  re- 
hearsal day ;  thought  the  stage  too  slippery,  or  too  small, 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 


Lily  wanted  a  stage  thirty  feet  wide,  no  less;  she  who, 
in  the  old  days,  at  a  gesture  from  Pa,  would  have  per- 
formed her  whole  turn,  including  the  head-on-the-saddle, 
on  the  top  of  a  cab  or  on  the  Stoke  Newington  pavement. 
Formerly,  she  used  to  think  everything  good,  did  not 
know  what  fatigue  meant  ;  now,  in  the  middle  of  her  turn, 
she  would  say  to  herself,  sometimes  with  a  feeling  of  dis- 
couragement : 

"I've  only  done  half.    I've  still  got  this  and  that  to  do." 

And  the  audience  itself  seemed  to  act  as  her  confed- 
erate. When  she  missed  one  of  her  tricks,  Lily  would  lay 
her  bike  on  the  stage,  step  down  to  the  footlights,  bow 
with  a  confused  air,  beg  pardon  with  a  smile  and  receive 
a  reassuring  round  of  applause.  Lily  loved  these  refined 
audiences:  her  audiences,  as  she  said;  not  the  matinee 
audiences,  with  seats  at  reduced  prices  :  to  see  your  grocer 
or  your  butcher  in  the  front  boxes  was  rotten  ;  and  those 
people  gave  themselves  such  airs.  A  cheap  way  of  doing 
the  grand! 

And  the  landladies  spoiled  her,  too  ;  those  worthy  souls 
who  treated  her  as  their  own  daughter. 

"And  a  jolly  sight  better  !"  thought  Lily. 

Others  pitied  her  for  the  profession  she  followed, 
feared  she  would  break  something,  one  fine  day.  Lily 
thought  that  very  sweet  of  them,  would  have  liked  to  stay 
with  them  for  ever;  but  there  was  the  constant  rent  at 
parting,  a  bit  of  herself  which  Lily  left  behind  her  every 
week.  And  the  bothers  that  Maud  caused  her!  Her 
stupidity  drove  Lily  mad:  tickets  lost,  bags  mislaid, 
disputes  with  the  tradesmen,  battles  with  the  bike, 
scratches  on  the  shins,  on  the  hands,  everywhere.  Lily 
lost  patience,  threatened  her  with  the  leather  belt, 
damn  it! 


INTERMEZZO  235 

Sometimes,  Lily  became  incensed  with  herself  and 
everybody.  Her  divorce  kept  running  in  her  head.  And 
her  three  years'  book,  with  its  last  pages  unsoiled  by 
engagements,  also  gave  her  cause  for  uneasiness ;  and 
yet  the  acting  managers  must  have  sung  her  praises,  in 
their  weekly  reports, — the  ones  who  came  and  made 
love  to  her  on  the  stage! 

After  different  music-halls,  she  had  done  the  Harras- 
ford  tour,  but  without  any  great  success.  People  who 
had  known  her  with  the  troupe  thought  that  she  had  gone 
off.  Lily  was  furious:  if,  on  those  evenings,  she  missed 
a  trick,  she  would  knock  Glass-Eye  about  when  she  re- 
turned to  the  wings,  storm  at  the  stage — "Slippery  as 
ice,  damn  it!" — fling  her  bike,  which  was  not  to  blame, 
against  the  wall.  Lily,  in  her  pink  tights,  under  the  pen- 
dants of  false  pearls  on  her  forehead,  looked  like  an 
angry  savage,  ready  to  fly  at  your  throat. 

That  was  her  life.  No  adventures,  really;  theaters  in 
which  she  caught  on,  theaters  in  which  she  didn't  go 
down  so  well;  more  or  less  prolonged  applause;  an  en- 
core or  two ;  and,  here  and  there,  a  bouquet  large  enough 
to  fill  a  cab:  those  were  the  great  events.  And  it  was 
always  the  same  show,  on  the  same  stage,  from  one  end 
of  England  to  the  other ;  theaters  and  theaters ;  so  many 
theaters  that,  in  her  memory,  they  ended,  like  the  towns, 
by  making  only  one.  It  was  always  herds  of  Roofers, 
swaying  in  unison,  with  flaxen  wigs,  scarlet  legs,  boyish 
voices;  and  "families,"  "sisters,"  "brothers,"  all  differ- 
ent, but  all  alike,  going  up  the  staircase  to  their  dressing- 
rooms  in  wraps,  like  gouty  people  at  a  spa,  and  series, 
series,  with  choruses  emphasized  by  dances.  Sometimes, 
a  new  attraction,  a  Venus  without  tights,  or  a  bare- 
breasted  Salome,  would  draw  whole  groups,  boys  and 


THE   BILL-TOPPERS 

girls  mixed,  to  the  wings,  with  their  necks  stretched 
toward  the  stage.  And  there  were  exotic  features,  too: 
conjurers  from  Malabar;  boomerang-throwing  bush- 
men;  the  Light  of  Asia,  a  Chinese  girl  without  arms, 
an  artificial  product,  like  those  beggar-monsters  whom 
they  cultivate  in  pots  in  the  mountains  of  Navarre.  She 
saw  the  boy-violinist  again.  Since  that  bite  in  the  seat 
of  his  trousers,  at  Budapest,  he  had  abandoned  all  hope 
of  fame  and  was  looking  for  an  engagement  in  the 
orchestra.  She  saw  the  female-impersonator  with  the 
green  eyes.  She  saw  numbers  and  numbers.  She  ended 
by  seeing  them  all  again,  in  the  various  greenrooms. 
She  heard  names  mentioned.  People  were  coming  on 
all  round :  Tom,  singing-girls,  dancing-girls.  She  would 
have  to  do  something,  too,  after  all,  to  get  herself 
talked  about!  She  had  received  a  shock  on  opening 
The  Era:  they  had  not  taken  out  her  name!  There 
was  still  a  Miss  Lily  at  Rathbone  Place:  her  cousin 
Daisy,  it  appeared,  a  stranger,  was  there  in  her  stead, 
under  her  name!  And  they  were  stealing  her  idea! 
The  New  Zealanders  were  now  called  the  New  Trick- 
ers;  no  doubt  the  turn  which  she  had  described  to  Pa. 
Something  new,  something  new  was  essential.  She  must 
manage  to  hit  upon  something!  She  turned  it  all  over 
in  her  head.  There  were  too  many  Lilies,  Lilians,  Lilli- 
ans; you  saw  nothing  but  Lillians  on  the  posters.  But 
what  about  a  Lilia  Godiva,  quite  naked  on  her  bike, 
like  the  other  on  her  horse?  She  would  mimic  the 
scene,  love  and  despair,  and  she  would  think  of  some- 
thing to  raise  a  laugh!  Peeping  Tom,  for  instance, 
stretching  out  his  neck  and  stealing  a  kiss  as  she  passed. 
Oh,  she  would  find  a  way — trust  her!— of  showing 
them  what  she  had  in  her!  And  Jimmy  and  Trampy 


INTERMEZZO  237 

pursued  her  incessantly  with  their  hateful  memory. 
Trampy,  she  was  told,  was  still  the  darling  of  the  fair. 

Lily  was  greatly  astonished  that  he  had  not  tried  to 
obtain  a  divorce,  on  his  side : 

"He's  afraid,"  she  said  to  herself. 

More  than  ever,  she  busied  herself  witfi  collecting  her 
witnesses ;  she  would  soon  be  rid  of  her  tramp  cyclist. 

People  also  talked  about  Jimmy,  whose  reputation  was 
still  increasing.  After  a  triumphant  season  at  the  Hip- 
podrome, he  had  left  for  America.  Jimmy  was  becom- 
ing a  national  champion.  An  article  in  The  Era  spoke 
of  "our  Jimmy." 

"He's  a  friend  of  yours,  Lily,"  people  said.  "You 
ought  to  know  all  about  him." 

Lily  tossed  her  head,  like  one  who  could  say»a  great 
deal  if  she  would.  .  .  . 

Oh,  how  she  longed  for  revenge  when  she  thought 
of  that!  Oh,  if  she  could  only  have  served  them  out 
somehow!  If  she  could  get  The  Performer  Annual 
to  send  her  those  questions  to  answer:  "Q.  Your 
favorite  town?  Your  favorite  audience?  Your  idea  of 
marriage?  Your  pet  aversion?"  wouldn't  she  give  it 
them  hot,  just!  She  thought  of  having  her  biography 
written,  the  real  one.  She  herself  sometimes  jotted  down 
things  she  remembered,  on  bits  of  paper,  on  the  backs  of 
envelopes,  in  her  dressing-room ;  arranged  her  picture 
post-cards  in  order ;  called  that  writing  her  memoirs.  She 
would  crush  them  with  her  successes,  give  names  and 
dates :  that  lord  who  wanted  to  travel  with  her,  the  fifty- 
pound  diamond  brooch  he  had  given  her.  And  bouquets, 
chocolates,  sweets  ...  by  the  cart-load !  That  stage- 
manager  who  cried  when  she  went  away !  All,  all  in  love 
with  her:  yes,  those  and  ever  so  many  more! 


238  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

She  had  so  much  to  say  that  she  did  not  know  where 
to  begin.  She  knocked  up  against  too  many  people,  men 
and  women,  without  counting  monkeys,  parrots,  dogs, 
cats,  ponies,  elephants ;  it  all  ended  by  getting  mixed  up 
in  her  head,  like  the  theaters  and  the  towns.  She  grew 
quite  bewildered,  among  so  many  different  things.  She 
had  seen  everything  and  done  everything.  Once,  during 
a  week  when  she  was  "resting,"  she  had  helped  her  land- 
lady, who  kept  a  public-house,  to  draw  the  beer  and  had 
waited  on  the  customers,  with  her  fifty-pound  diamond 
brooch  at  her  throat. 

At  a  benefit  performance,  one  night,  when  they  were 
drinking  champagne  on  the  stage,  actors,  singers,  artistes, 
all  together,  her  pink  tights  had  excited  the  dress-coats. 
Lily  had  been  "pressed  in  company,"  that  is  to  say,  sur- 
rounded till  she  did  not  know  which  way  to  turn,  while 
her  time  was  pretty  well  taken  up  with  saying,  "Paws 
off !"  before,  behind,  on  every  side.  She  had  triumphed 
at  galas,  above  a  tumult  of  heads  and  parasols :  at  Round- 
hay  Park,  among  other  places,  beneath  the  motto,  "Let 
Leeds  flourish!"  Feeling  anxious  about  her  future,  she 
had  consulted  a  "Zanzig"  at  Earl's  Court.  Each  week 
brought  its  surprises,  its  fresh  knowledge.  Lily  learned 
something  every  day:  "If  you  see  a  lamb  in  the  fields 
with  its  head  turned  toward  you,  that's  lucky ;  if  you  see 
its  tail  first,  it's  a  sign  of  bad  luck,"  and  the  way  of 
holding  your  hands,  of  placing  your  fingers,  of  whisper- 
ing certain  words  in  certain  circumstances. 

She  collected  halfpennies  with  holes  in  them.  In 
Ireland,  she  had  kissed  the  Blarney  stone  and  picked 
shamrock  in  the  ruins.  She  had  lost  her  little  mother- 
of-pearl  hunchback  in  the  labyrinth  of  underground  pas- 
sages at  the  Blackpool  Tower  Circus,  The  loss  of  this 


INTERMEZZO  239 

lucky  cKarm  had  damped  her  spirits  for  a  week.  And 
her  profits  were  small  and  her  "exes"  constantly  increas- 
ing :  tips  to  the  call-boy,  who  cleaned  her  bike ;  tips  to  the 
stage-manager;  half-crowns  and  five  shillings  in  every 
direction.  As  soon  as  she  had  put  a  trifle  by,  a  week  with- 
out an  engagement  made  her  hard-up  again.  Though  she 
traveled  at  reduced  fares  and  contented  herself  with  a 
ham  sandwich  or  a  slice  of  pork-pie  on  the  road,  she 
would  never,  never  be  able  to  repay  Jimmy  that  money : 
she  had  not  even  paid  Glass-Eye  yet !  Her  dresses  for  on 
and  off  the  stage  swallowed  up  everything.  And  yet  she 
couldn't  go  about  naked,  like  Lady  Godiva! 

And  time  passed  and  passed.  Lily  was  growing  old: 
she  was  eighteen !  There  were  girls  of  her  age  who  were 
already  beyond  work,  used  up,  like  that  girl  contor- 
tionist who  had  just  been  cut  open  for  a  tumor;  and 
Lily  had  as  yet  achieved  nothing !  Oh,  she  ought  to  have 
signed  for  America  or  Australia,  or  else  for  Russia,  of 
which  she  had  heard  wonders — Poland,  the  Parisienne, 
had  just  returned  from  there  covered  with  diamonds — 
theaters  that  played  all  night  and  did  not  close  till  dawn, 
to  the  clicking  of  champagne-glasses.  Lily  dreamed  of 
it,  ecstatically:  England  was  no  good  to  her  now.  The 
New  Trickers,  with  their  own  cheap  Lily,  were  working 
her  idea  on  the  Bill  and  Boom  Tour!  If  only  she  could 
have  the  continent !  They  were  talking  of  a  new  music- 
hall  which  Harrasford  was  to  open  in  Paris.  He  meant 
to  make  a  palace  of  it,  they  said,  and  he  was  also  stretch- 
ing out  his  arm  toward  Antwerp,  Cologne,  Lyons,  Mar- 
seilles, a  continental  trust.  .  .  . 

"That's  what  I  ought  to  have,"  thought  Lily. 

Her  present  life  seemed  empty,  notwithstanding  its 
excitement :  it  was  like  the  sound  of  a  band ;  nothing  re- 


240  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

mained  of  it.  Departures,  constant  departures  from  one 
town  to  another,  always  leaving,  never  staying.  But  for 
Glass-Eye's  company  she  would  have  cried,  sometimes, 
for  sheer  melancholy,  as  at  the  sight  of  those  really  loving 
couples  in  the  boarding-houses,  on  the  stage  itself;  those 
babies  in  the  arms  of  their  Mas ;  it  made  her  heart  ache ; 
the  thought  of  it  pursued  her  like  the  call  of  distant  bells, 
while  the  train  rushed  into  the  darkness. 


CHAPTER  III 

"May  joy  and  pleasure  be  your  lot 
As  through  this  world  you  trot,  trot,  trot. 

"X." 

"In  the  golden  chain  of  friendship,  regard  me  as  a  link. 
"LOVING  PAL  (Palace,  Sheffield)/' 

There  were  pages  and  pages  like  this  in  Lily's  auto- 
graph book.  The  last  entry  was  that  of  a  couple  of 
friends,  the  dark  one  and  the  fair  one : 

"May  success  always  follow  you,  and  eventually  a  good 
fellow  collar  you,  is  the  sincere  wish  of  the 

"Sisters  'Arriett  and  Nancy — The  ideal  pair  (of  legs !)" 

Since  Miss  Lily's  arrival  in  Paris,  her  collection  had 
been  increased  by  the  addition  of  a  fervent  declaration 
from  her  friend,  the  architect.  This  had  been  her  wel- 
come in  Paris,  the  good  fellow,  no  doubt,  prophesied  by 
the  ideal  pair  of  legs ;  yes,  she  had  hardly  reached  Paris 
and  already  there  were  people  dying  of  love  around  her, 
already  a  man  at  her  feet. 

Lily  was  delighted  to  meet  this  sincere  friend  again,  a 
friend  of  her  childhood,  who,  she  said,  had  known  her 
when  she  was  "that  high":  one  poor  devil  the  more 
ready  to  leave  wife  and  children  for  her  sake.  The 

241 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

evening  before,  in  her  dressing-room,  at  the  Bijou  The- 
ater, she  had  told  him  the  story  of  her  life  since  leaving 
her  parents.  It  made  her  forget  to  ask  about  Harras- 
ford  and  the  new  theater  which  he  was  to  open:  was  it 
ready?  The  architect  ought  to  know  better  than  any- 
body. She  would  ask  him  to-night.  And  Lily  lay  turn- 
ing this  over,  in  the  morning,  in  bed,  notwithstanding 
her  other  cares,  for  she  must  get  clear  somehow,  must 
see  the  agents  that  afternoon.  She  had  plenty  to  do 
beside  her  turn.  She  had  to  busy  herself  with  those  thou- 
sand and  one  details.  .  .  .  She  would  never  have 
believed  that  it  was  so  hard  to  fill  her  three  years'  book. 
Lily  felt  half-dead  with  fatigue  before  she  started: 

"Let  me  sleep !"  said  Lily,  stretching  herself  in  the  big 
double  bed  which  Glass-Eye  had  just  left;  "clear  out! 
Let  me  sleep !" 

But  Glass-Eye  made  a  rush  at  Lily,  tickled  her  in  the 
neck,  stifled  her  laughter  under  the  pillow:  it  was  a  ne- 
cessity for  them  in  the  morning,  those  few  minutes  of 
horse-play,  of  thumps  and  smacks,  which  rang  out  on 
every  side.  Lily,  at  last,  full-throated,  with  fluttering 
nostrils,  cried  out  for  mercy.  The  maid  went  ofT,  Lily, 
now  quite  awake,  remained  alone,  and  her  worries  re- 
turned: no  more  love,  no  more  music,  as  at  the  theater, 
no  more  purple  rays,  nothing  but  gloomy  hours,  a  long 
day  stretching  out  before  her  like  a  gray  corridor.  It 
was  real  life  now :  letters  to  write,  costumes  to  mend,  last 
night's  tights  to  wash  in  the  basin.  .  ,  .  Lily,  sit- 
ting on  the  edge  of  her  bed,  took  her  purse  from  where 
she  had  hidden  it  under  the  bolster — a  habit  she  had 
acquired  in  marriage,  because  of  Trampy's  nightly  fer- 
retings— and  emptied  it  on  the  sheets:  one  blue  bank- 


INTERMEZZO  243 

note;  one,  two,  three  gold  coins.  How  much  did  that 
make  in  pounds,  shillings  and  pence?  Hardly  seven 
pounds.  It  was  all  in  vain  for  her  to  economize,  like  that 
Ma  of  a  star,  who  counted  the  potatoes.  It  was  all  in 
vain  for  her  to  stint  in  every  way,  to  keep  back  Glass- 
Eye's  wages  for  over  a  year,  saying  that  she  would 
pay  her  in  a  lump:  she  would  have  almost  nothing  left 
after  the  purchases  which  she  had  to  make.  It  was  true 
that,  to-morrow,  she  would  receive  her  fortnight's  pay; 
and  she  hoped  for  a  renewal.  She  felt  sure  of  it,  if  only 
because  of  the  way  in  which  the  manager  had  taken  her 
by  the  chin.  Then  a  fortnight  at  the  Brussels  Alhambra 
— i  November,  Flora,  Amsterdam — 10  January,  Copen- 
hagen— and,  for  the  rest,  her  three  years'  book  was  empty 
and  each  empty  page  represented  months  without  work — 
all  her  profits  would  be  swallowed  up  by  her  enforced 
idleness.  She  would  never  clear  herself,  never  be  able 
to  pay  Jimmy.  Oh,  she  was  furious  with  him  because 
she  could  not  discharge  her  debt  to  him  once  and  for 
all,  fling  his  money  in  his  face,  show  him  if  people  re- 
mained penniless  long  when  they  had  her  talent !  That 
idea  comforted  Lily.  And  it  was  important  that  she 
should  look  nice  to-day,  to  go  the  round  of  the  agents. 
Lily  dressed  quickly,  cunningly  puffed  out  her  bows,  a 
trick  she  had  learned  as  a  child,  and  then,  before  putting 
on  her  dress,  cooked  the  food  with  Glass-Eye,  who  had 
just  come  in  with  her  parcels. 

Then  a  dash  of  scent  on  the  handkerchief,  a  touch  of 
rouge  on  the  lips  and,  leaving  the  room  all  untidy,  she 
went  out,  followed  by  Glass-Eye,  rigged  out  in  a  pair 
of  thread  mittens  and  carrying  the  sunshade  and  the 
wrist-bag.  Quick,  quick!  For  Lily  knew  by  experience 


244  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

that  it  is  well  to  be  the  first  at  the  agent's  or  else  there's 
nothing  for  you. 

She  did  not  dislike  those  walks  through  the  Paris 
streets : 

"Let's  have  some  fun,"  she  said  to  Glass-Eye. 

By  this,  Lily  meant  laughing  at  those  "tiny  Frenchies" ; 
and,  if  they  ventured  to  accost  her,  crushing  them  with 
a  "Vous  hettes  oun  cochon!"  Although,  among  the  peo- 
ple she  mixed  with,  agents,  artistes,  stage-hands,  every- 
body spoke  English,  Lily  had  not  come  to  Paris  without 
learning  a  few  words,  "Oui  .  .  .  Non  .  .  .  Vous 
hettes  oun  cochon!"  and  so  on,  which  were  indispensable, 
she  thought,  to  a  girl  who  wanted  to  make  herself  re- 
spected on  the  continent,  a  girl  alone,  especially.  And 
she  loved  to  snub  those  damned  parley-voos  who  dared 
to  accost  ladies.  It  seemed  to  lighten  those  days  of  visits 
to  the  agents,  the  very  prospect  of  which  gave  her  a 
headache  in  advance,  because  one  had  to  think  of  every- 
thing, lithos,  photographs,  programs;  and,  if  the  agent 
wasn't  in,  ruin  one's  self  in  correspondence ;  and  puff 
one's  self  in  every  way,  rub  it  into  them  that  one  was  the 
cleverest  person  on  earth.  .  .  . 

"If  you're  too  modest,"  said  Lily,  "they'll  take  you  at 
your  word !" 

And  the  pay  would  drop,  in  consequence. 

"Never  tell  your  salary!"  was  another  of  Lily's  fa- 
vorite maxims. 

She  gave  out  that  she  made  heaps,  that  a  little  star  like 
her,  the  Marie  Loyd  of  the  bike,  was  only  to  be  obtained 
for  untold  gold.  But,  at  the  agent's,  she  had  to  cut  her 
prices :  there  was  no  hiding  anything  from  them ;  it  was 
like  going  to  the  doctor. 

"And,  when  you're  in  work,  everybody   wants  you ; 


INTERMEZZO  245 

and,  when  you're  out  of  work,  they  have  nothing  for 
you :  it's  help  yourself  as  best  you  may !"  she  said. 

She  had  to  help  herself  now ;  and  it  was  delicate  busi- 
ness dealing  with  people  who  have  only  one  idea  in  their 
heads,  to  swindle  you,  in  order  to  curry  favor  with  the 
managers  by  getting  them  cheap  turns.  They  would 
have  skinned  you  alive: 

"Two  pounds  a  week.    Do  you  accept  ?" 

"Go  to  Halifax !"  Lily  would  reply  in  such  cases,  look- 
ing them  straight  in  the  face.  It  took  courage  to  do  that : 
the  agent  might  grow  bigger,  become  an  enemy.  She 
didn't  care !  She  wasn't  going  to  lower  her  price  for  any- 
body !  And  the  commission  she  had  to  pay  them  was  a 
torment  to  Lily ;  calculating  the  percentage  made  her  head 
split — not  to  speak  of  the  complicated  nature  of  the 
contracts,  worse  than  insurance  policies.  The  poor  ar- 
tiste was  bound  down  on  every  side,  at  the  mercy  of  the 
manager ;  everything  was  foreseen,  down  to  the  prohibi- 
tion of  black  tights,  which  concealed  one's  poverty.  And 
it  was  bad  enough  in  England ;  but  in  the  Dago  countries, 
on  the  continent,  it  was  worse. 

.  "Can  you  understand  a  word  of  it,  Glass-Eye  ?"  asked 
Lily,  explaining  to  her  maid  the  tricks  which  the  artiste 
had  to  fight  against.  "I  don't  know  how  the  small  turns 
manage,"  she  concluded,  in  the  tone  of  a  woman  who 
towers  above  all  that. 

Lily's  prettiness  made  the  people  in  the  street  turn 
round  to  look  at  her.  They  would  gaze  at  her  cheeky 
feather,  whisper,  "You  pretty,  pretty  darling!"  in  her 
ear.  Lily,  secretly  delighted,  held  herself  ready  to  crush 
the  saucy  rascal  with  a  "How  dare  you?"  like  a  lady 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

who  knows  how  to  appreciate  a  compliment,  without  per- 
mitting the  least  familiarity.  And  when  she  approached 
the  agency,  she  insisted  on  Glass-Eye's  keeping  by  her 
side,  asked  for  things:  her  wrist-bag,  her  embroidered 
handkerchief.  And  her  way  of  walking  in!  Lily  pre- 
tended to  be  short-sighted,  so  as  to  see  no  one  in  the 
rotten  lot.  She  sent  in  her  card,  sat  down  in  the  wait- 
ing-room. It  reminded  her  of  the  dentist's,  with  those 
pale  people  sitting  on  benches ;  those  serio-comics,  all 
over- fat;  loud-voiced  topical  singers,  who  took  the  place 
of  the  real  artistes,  just  like  the  bioscopes  and  cinemato- 
graphs !  There  were  also  little  families — small  turns  that 
had  struggled  hard  to  learn  a  few  tricks — nobody  wanted 
them,  because  they  had  no  "chic"  costumes,  sometimes, 
or  no  lithos.  .  .  . 

Those  were  received  like  dogs :  a  wretched  couple  was 
just  coming  out,  a  man  and  a  woman,  sad  with  a  humility 
accustomed  to  rebuffs ;  and  the  agent  drove  them  toward 
the  door,  with  his  voice : 

"Eccentric  mashers  ?  No  opening  for  you.  Call  again." 
Lily  got  a  good  reception,  in  the  agent's  room;  but 
there  was  nothing  for  her.  And  the  agent  saw  her  to 
the  door,  with  a  satisfied  air  and  a  knowing  wink,  as 
though  to  make  the  others  believe  .  .  .  Lily  didn't 
like  that  kind — her  short-sightedness  did  not  prevent  her 
noticing  it  and  blushing  at  it — but  she  was  very  pleased, 
all  the  same,  to  be  seen  to  the  door,  before  those  small 
turns  who  were  received  like  dogs.  .  .  . 

On  the  pavement  outside,  the  wretched  couple  came  up 
to  her  shyly : 

"Don't  you  know  us,  Miss  Lily?    The  Para-Paras." 
She  had  to  listen  to  a  pitiful  tale.    She  heard  nothing 
but  that,  when  she  went  on  her  rounds  of  visits  to  the 


INTERMEZZO 


247 


agents.  Oh,  the  distress  which  she  beheld  there!  It 
made  Lily  feel  quite  ill  at  night.  A  little  more  and  she 
would  have  said  her  prayers,  be- 
fore getting  into  bed,  to  thank 
God  that  she  hadn't  come  to 
that.  Poor  Paras!  Starving, 
no  doubt,  remaining  for  weeks 
in  their  garret,  pretending  that 
they  had  been  performing  in  the 
provinces  .  .  .  abroad.  .  .  . 
Lily  pictured  them  passing  the 
stage-doorkeepers  to  whom  they 
had  sold  their  parrots  and  being 
greeted  with  a  "What's  for 
breakfast,  Polly?" 

"Miss  Lily,"  they  confessed, 
in  a  whisper,  "you  know  such  a 
lot  of  people:  if  ever  you  hear 
of  anything  for  us,  never  mind 
where  .  .  ." 

"Poor  beggars !"  thought 
Lily. 

And    her    Ma    had    prophe- 
sied to  her  that,  one  day,  she 
would   be    worse    off 
than   they!    No,    she  {^c^rs-cji 

never  be  half     ^c"M^.;, 

^  I  ^jp 
/«% 


would  ^ 

so  badly  off!  Why,v  ' 
she  could  have  had  >> 
anything  she  wanted, 
motor-cars,  Paris 
gowns,  for  the  asking. 
"Glass-Eye,  my 


THE  PARA-PARAS 


248  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

bag!"  And,  handing  a  small  gold  coin  to  the  wretched 
couple,  "There  .  .  .  between  artistes,  you  know 
.  .  .  give  it  back  when  you  can ;  good-by.  Did  you 
notice,  Glass-Eye,"  asked  Lily,  as  she  walked  away,  "how 
flattered  they  were  when  I  said,  'Between  artistes  ?'  They 
looked  quite  touched." 

But  there  was  no  time  to  waste  in  nonsense,  on  a  day 
when  she  was  calling  on  the  agents.  The  thing  was  to 
get  there  first ;  and  Lily  consulted  her  addresses.  .  .  . 

She  was  exasperated  at  being  obliged,  with  her  talent, 
to  climb  all  those  stairs,  to  hang  about  in  the  waiting- 
room,  she,  Lily  Clifton!  And  it  reeked  of  vice,  stunk 
with  the  trashy  scent  of  the  "not-up-to-muches :"  merely 
to  look  at  them  suggested  faces  seen  in  Piccadilly  at 
night  or  in  the  Burlington  Arcade. 

Lily  sent  in  her  card,  threw  a  short-sighted  glance 
around  her  and  remained  standing,  like  a  lady  who  is 
never  kept  waiting  and  who  is  sure  to  be  received  at  once. 
And,  with  her  head  bent  down  and  her  chin  in  her  gold- 
spotted  tie,  she  turned  over  the  pages  of  Le  Courrier  des 
Cafes  Concerts  on  the  table  .  .  .  names  which  she 
didn't  know  ...  the  small  "numbers"  of  the  conti- 
nent ...  so  much  the  better  ...  all  the  more 
chance  for  her.  But  the  engagement  which  she  dreamed 
of  did  not  offer  this  time  either.  What  the  agent  did 
propose  to  her,  almost  without  lowering  his  voice,  with 
the  door  open,  before  everybody,  was  the  grated  private 
boxes  of  South  America  .  .  .  the  private  rooms  of 
Russia  .  .  .  accompanied,  at  a  startled  movement  on 
Lily's  part,  by  this  concession : 

"You  needn't  sleep  there,  you  know "!" 

To  talk  like  that  to  a  lady!  Lily  felt  stifled.  Was 
that  what  she  had  learned  the  bike  for?  To  exhibit 


INTERMEZZO  249 

herself  after  the  show,  at  the  customers'  disposal?  Lily 
could  have  fainted  on  the  stairs,  as  she  went  down. 

"One  of  those !"  she  said.    "Not  1 1" 

And  she  continued  her  weary  pilgrimage  of  stairs, 
from  agent  to  agent. 

"I  must  have  six  months  filled  up  in  my  book  before  to- 
night!" she  said,  determined  to  visit  them  all,  small  and 
large,  rather  than  go  back  empty-handed. 

There  were  some  who  suggested  to  her  that  ten  per 
cent,  was  really  very  little  .  .  . 

"I  like  their  style!"  thought  Lily.  "They  want  an 
extra  sop  thrown  to  them:  one  might  as  well  work  for 
nothing !" 

She  thanked  them,  nevertheless,  so  as  not  to  make 
enemies  of  them — one  never  knows — and  the  agent 
doesn't  matter  so  much ;  but  the  assistant,  who  happens 
to  have  known  you  when  you  were  "that  high"  .  .  . 
better  give  him  a  tip,  lest  he  should  round  on  you. 

She  also  saw  a  former  artiste,  a  friend  of  Pa's,  who 
had  become  an  agent. 

"Miss  Lily?  Lily  Clifton?  What  are  you  doing  now? 
Won't  you  see  my  secretary?  Leave  your  address  with 
him." 

"Fellows  whom  Pa  helped!"  she  grumbled  angrily,  as 
she  went  down  the  stairs.  "They're  the  worst  of  all! 
They  make  you  pay  for  the  humiliation  of  their  own  fail- 
ure on  the  stage !" 

Presently,  she  came  to  an  agent  who  practised  almost 
in  the  street,  in  an  arcade  somewhat  like  the  Burlington, 
an  agent  for  everything  .  .  .  circus,  music-hall,  the- 
ater .  .  .  artistes  formed  in  a  week  .  .  .  white 
flesh  at  famine  salaries.  There  were  all  sorts  of  people 
there,  a  moving  heap  of  frayed  velvet  and  shabby  plush. 


250  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Lily  passed  by  with  great  dignity.  Next,  she  came  to 
the  big  agent,  with  offices  in  Berlin  and  London  .  .  . 
the  ting-ting  of  telephones,  the  tick-tack  of  typewriters 
all  day  .  .  .  business  pure  and  simple,  an  exchange 
for  supple  loins,  swelling  biceps,  muslin  skirts,  pigeon's 
eggs  ...  a  sheaf  of  stars  who,  from  there,  radiated 
over  Australia,  America,  England,  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Trusts,  Bill  and  Boom,  Harrasford,  the  conti- 
nent. Lily  felt  a  little  ill  at  ease  as  she  entered — she 
had  a  pain  in  the  pit  of  her  stomach,  as  when  she  used 
to  expect  a  smacking — and  again  in  the  private  office 
crammed  with  papers  and  registers,  when  alone  with  the 
agent,  who  looked  at  her  card,  he  seated,  she  standing. 
Then,  suddenly: 

"Lily?  Miss  Lily?  Your  price  is  two  hundred  francs 
a  week,  I  believe." 

"What!"  said  Lily.    "With  a  bike  and  a  maid?" 
"It's  what  you  had  at  Maidstone,  so  I  was  told." 
"What  a  lie !"  said  Lily.    "Three  hundred  francs  is  the 
lowest  I've  ever  had.    I'll  show  you  my  contracts." 

"Don't  trouble,"  said  the  agent.  "I  thought  .  .  . 
we  can  get  plenty  at  that  price,  you  know  ...  in 
your  style  ..." 

"In  my  style,  perhaps  .  .  .  but  not  me." 
"Pooh,  the  audience  doesn't  know  the  idifference."  And 
he  started  looking  through  a  register,  turning  over  the 
pages  and  repeating  mechanically,  like  a  refrain  or  a 
lullaby,  ''The  audience  doesn't  care  a  hang;  it's  all  the 
same  to  the  audience."  And,  suddenly,  with  his  hand 
flat  on  the  open  book  and  the  other  ready  to  take  up  the 
pen,  with  a  piercing  eye  fixed  upon  Lily,  "I  can  give  you 
a  month  at  a  thousand  francs  .  .  .  they  want  a  girl 
in  tights  ,  ,  .  at  Lisbon," 


INTERMEZZO  251 

"Lisbon?"  said  Lily.  "That's  at  the  Colosseo.  A 
thousand  francs  to  go  to  the  Colosseo,  with  one's  luggage 
and  a  maid  ?" 

"Well?"  broke  in  the  agent.  "And  what  do  you  want 
a  maid  for,  you  extravagant  little  beast?  Why  not  your 
maid's  family  while  you're  about  it  ?  A  thousand  francs : 
will  you  take  it?  I've  got  some  one  who  will,  if  you 
don't." 

Lily  had  to  say  yes  or  no  quickly.  Her  forehead  was 
wrinkled  with  the  effort  of  turning  the  francs  into  shill- 
ings, the  shillings  into  pounds.  She  consulted  her  book, 
like  an  artiste  who  doesn't  know,  who  may  not  be  free, 
for  a  whole  month.  She  lowered  her  chin  in  her  tie,  but 
without  smiling  .  .  .  had  a  cramp  in  her  stomach, 
rather  ...  at  a  pinch,  by  leaving  Glass-Eye  in 
Paris.  .  .  .  After  Lisbon,  one  generally  had  Madrid 
and  Barcelona  and  returned  by  Marseilles  and  Lyons. 
Friends  of  hers  had  done  well  like  that.  But  to  accept 
a  lower  salary  once  meant  accepting  it  always,  in  estab- 
lishments of  the  same  class ;  it  meant  reducing  her  price, 
for  always,  by  two  pounds  a  week,  at  least. 

"A  thousand  f ranees :  will  you  have  it?" 

And  Lily  : 

"No,  it's  impossible!  I  can't  take  less  than  twelve 
pounds  a  week."  And  she  began  to  sum  up  her  proofs: 
"Look  here,  at  the  Hippodrome,  Glasgow  ...  at  the 
Palace,  Leeds  .  .  ." 

But  the  agent  wouldn't  listen,  shut  up  the  register,  was 
sorry : 

"Can't  do  it  .  .  .  bad  season  .  .  .  cyclists  to 
be  had  for  the  asking.  Good-by." 

"Good-by." 

And  Lily  went  out,  went  down  the  stairs,  feeling  half- 


252  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

inclined  to  go  back  and  accept;  but  no!  Lower  her 
prices?  Never!  Oh,  those  cheap  artistes,  those  black- 
legs deserved  to  be  hanged!  Great  lazybones  who  learn 
a  few  baby  tricks  on  the  bike  or  the  tight-rope,  back- 
shop  acrobats,  slop-shop  Lilies,  who  practise  at  a  safe 
distance,  by  watching  you  on  the  stage,  through  an 
opera-glass.  They  cut  your  prices  by  half;  they  would 
work  for  a  handful  of  rice,  like  a  monkey.  They  de- 
served to  have  the  iron  curtain  come  down  on  them,  and 
flatten  them  out  like  black-beetles,  the  wind-bags ! 

"I  say,  Glass-Eye,  perhaps  it's  they  who  fell  into  the 
orchestra,  was  it,  when  I  got  my  thighs  full  of  lamp- 
glass  from  the  footlights,  eh?  They  copy  you,  think 
themselves  artistes.  .  .  .  What!  Yes?  You  say 
they  are,  Glass-Eye?  Damn  it,  I'll  have  your  eye  out!" 

And  Lily  had  a  fit  of  laughing  when  she  saw  Glass- 
Eye,  who  hadn't  said  a  word,  raise  her  elbow  in  affright 
to  ward  off  the  blow. 

Lily  held  the  banister  with  one  hand,  leaned  on  Maud's 
shoulder  with  the  other  and  laughed  and  laughed,  only 
to  see  her  maid's  terrified  face,  a  regular  fat  freak  shrink- 
ing before  the  belt.  My!  She  would  have  fallen  with 
laughing,  if  Glass-Eye  had  not  held  her  up ;  she  plugged 
her  lips  with  her  scented  handkerchief,  slapped  her  thighs. 
She  had  never  laughed  so  much  in  her  life.  She  already 
felt  consoled  for  all  her  bothers : 

"Watch  me,  Glass-Eye !  This  is  the  way  to  go  down- 
stairs !" 

And,  nimbly  as  a  bird,  Lily  hopped  on  the  banister, 
with  her  back  to  the  wall,  and  — w-w-w-w-whew ! — slid 
down  to  the  bottom,  keeping  her  balance  faultlessly, 
sprang  to  her  feet  on  the  last  stair  and,  with  a  wave  of  the 
hand,  as  after  a  successful  trick: 


253 

"There !    What  do  you  think  of  that?" 

Lily  was  not  given  to  long  spells  of  sadness.  Reaction 
always  followed  immediately  upon  her  worries,  made  the 
thousand  and  one  vexations  of  a  day  like  this  easier  for 
her  to  bear.  The  compliments  which  caught  her  ear  in 
the  street  comforted  her  too : 

"You  pretty,  pretty    ..." 

But  she  had  no  time  to  listen.  Six  months  in  her  book 
before  night!  As  time  passed,  Lily  would  have  been 
content  with  less.  And  trot,  trot,  trot:  while  she  was  at 
it;  then  she  would  end  by  seeing  whether  they  would 
get  her  for  a  handful  of  rice. 

This  idea  amused  her.  Lily  had  confidence  in  her  tal- 
ent and  continued  her  visits.  She  saw  them  all:  other 
agents,  former  bosses  or  profs,  who  had  sucked  appren- 
tices dry  to  the  marrow  and  who  continued  their  evil 
practices  in  their  offices ;  this  sort  sized  you  up  with 
the  eye  of  a  slave-dealer.  There  was  also  the  lucky  agent, 
who  had  started  a  sensational  attraction,  a  Laurence  or  a 
Light  of  Asia.  This  agent  had  a  touch  of  pride  about  him, 
with  his  eternal,  "I  gave  her  her  first  start !"  as  though 
to  say : 

"They'll  never  find  another  like  her,  never !  They  don't 
turn  them  out  like  that  now !" 

And  all  this  was  a  pretext  for  offering  you  ridiculous 
terms,  because  you  were  neither  Light  of  Asia  nor 
Laurence.  It  was  no  use  Lily's  boasting  of  having  de- 
clined Bill  and  Boom  and  Harrasford,  pretending  to  be 
an  artiste  for  whom  the  managers  were  competing 
against  one  another  with  sheaves  of  bank-notes.  There 
was  nothing  for  her  at  this  one's  .  .  .  nothing  for 
her  at  the  others',  either  .  .  .  only  a  scrap  of  news 
of  her  family,  through  an  artiste.  The  New  Trickers 


254  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

were  all  the  rage  in  Scotland,  it  seemed;  an  engagement 
in  London,  at  the  Palace,  was  waiting  for  them.  When 
Lily  heard  that,  she  turned  pale  with  envy:  so  it  was 
on  their  account  that  she  had  been  refused  that  tour  in 
England,  so  that  they  might  have  it!  Patience!  Her 


LILY 

day  would  come  .  .  .  when  she  returned  from  the 
continent  and,  instead  of  Miss,  called  herself  Mile.,  like 
Adeline  Genee  and  lots  of  others!  Meanwhile,  she  had 
found  nothing.  Still,  Lily  knew  that  one  sometimes 
had  whole  months  of  enforced  idleness,  without  knowing 


INTERMEZZO  255 

the  reason,  and  then,  suddenly,  one's  luck  returned. 
One  only  has  to  wait  a  bit,  thought  Lily,  making  her- 
self very  short-sighted  as  she  passed  before  the  arcade, 
the  haunt  of  the  out-at-elbow  pros  and  of  the  piffling 
little  agents,  the  jackals  of  the  profession,  on  the  look- 
out for  a  bone  to  gnaw.  And  it  was  not  a  little  vex- 
ing to  hear  her  name  pass  from  mouth  to  mouth — "Mrs. 
Trampy,  Mrs.  Trampy" — and  who  could  be  drawing  at- 
tention to  her  in  that  rotten  lot  ?  Was  Trampy  there,  by 
any  chance,  pointing  his  finger  at  her?  She  felt  inclined 
to  go  back  to  them,  to  tell  them  in  two  words  what  she 
thought  of  them.  Mrs.  Trampy,  indeed !  It  was  not  for 
long,  in  any  case.  Her  divorce  was  not  far  off ! 

In  the  evening,  at  the  theater,  she  forgot  her  bothers, 
as  usual.  The  day,  for  that  matter,  was  quite  an  ordi- 
nary one:  it  was  the  typical  day,  the  trot,  trot,  trot,  of 
the  star  alone,  in  search  of  engagements.  And,  thor- 
oughly tired,  in  her  dressing-room,  she  related  in  her 
own  way  the  adventures  which  she  had  had  since  the 
morning,  the  compliments  on  her  beauty;  and  at  the 
agents',  my!  If  she  had  liked,  she  could  have  filled  up 
her  three  years'  book !  The  architect  came  in  her  dress- 
ing-room for  a  moment :  so  interesting  a  Lily !  so  amus- 
ing, he  thought,  as  funny,  in  her  way,  as  Light  of  Asia, 
the  Chinese  girl  without  arms.  Sitting  on  the  big  trunk, 
he  admired  by  turns  Lily  and  the  disorderly  dressing- 
table,  its  cracked  looking-glass,  scribbled  over  with 
names,  and,  under  the  glaring  light,  the  grease-paints 
— red,  white,  black — the  powder-puffs  and  hare's  feet, 
the  biscuits  in  the  tray  among  the  hair-pins,  a  bottle 
and  glasses  beside  the  powder-box.  From  nails  on  the 
whitewashed  walls,  scratched  all  over  with  inscriptions, 
covered  with  penciled  dates,  hung  rainbow  skirts,  bodices 


256  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

with  metallic  flowers.  The  bike  shone  in  a  corner,  half- 
buried  under  Lily's  outdoor  clothes.  Tights  hung  beside 
it,  like  pink  skins,  gold  spangles  strewed  the  uncarpeted 
floor  and  scent  hovered  over  everything.  .  .  .  Half- 
open  doors  admitted  gusts  of  music  from  the  orchestra; 
and  Lily,  opposite  the  glass,  fumbled  among  her  pots  with 
the  tip  of  her  finger,  stained  her  lips  blood-red,  fixed  the 
rebellious  curl  to  her  forehead  with  a  touch  of  gum.  Out- 
side, in  the  passage,  was  the  row  of  doors,  with  spy- 
holes and  visiting  cards,  half-sheets  of  paper,  stuck  down 
with  wafers  and  bearing  the  names  of  the  various  occu- 
pants : 

"Prof.  X.  The  Famous  X.  Family.  Absolutely  the 
best." 

There  were  others  "absolutely  the  best." 

On  Lily's  door,  her  card — "Miss  Lily" — and,  under 
that,  modestly : 

"And  maid." 

Lily  revived  amid  these  surroundings ;  here  she  forgot 
her  fatigue,  blossomed  out  to  her  heart's  delight.  With 
her  rainbow  dress,  her  feathers  and  her  pearl  pendants, 
combined  with  her  elaborate  gestures  as  she  made  up 
her  face  in  front  of  the  gollywog,  she  resembled  the  of- 
ficiating priestess  of  a  strange  religion,  pacifying  some 
angry-eyed  idol  to  the  sound  of  distant  choirs. 

While  finishing  her  make-up,  Lily  continued  her  stories, 
talked  of  her  successes  in  England  and  here  and  there 
and  everywhere  .  .  .  and  the  lord  who  wanted  to 
marry  her  and  rained  down  presents  upon  her:  fifty- 
pound  brooches,  diamonds.  .  .  .  Everybody  in  love 
with  her:  to  listen  to  her  you  could  have  followed  her 
traces  like  the  passage  of  a  cyclone  .  .  .  men  gone 
mad  .  .  .  others  blinded  through  weeping  .  .  . 


257 

millionaires  ruined  in  chocolates  and  sweets  .  .  .  and 
flowers,  my!  *. 

"You  could  fill  the  Colosseum  with  them,  couldn't  you, 
Glass-Eye?  I've  been  spoiled  everywhere,"  continued 
Lily,  "and  I'm  known  everywhere!  Even  in  Paris,  to- 
day, there  were  a  lot  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  under  an 
arcade  and  you  heard  nothing  but  'Miss  Lily,  Miss  Lily,' 
didn't  you,  Glass-Eye  ?" 

"Yes,  Miss  Lily." 

But  these  social  successes  did  not  make  Lily  forget  her 
business  affairs.  Harrasford's  new  music-hall  worried 
her :  if  she  could  only  play  there,  only  snatch  it  from  the 
New  Trickers !  For  they  would  certainly  try  to  get  there ; 
and  the  architect,  of  course,  knew  .  .  . 

But  Lily  was  interrupted  by  the  call-boy :  time  for  her 
to  go  down  to  the  stage ! 

A  hurricane  came  up  from  the  orchestra,  muffled,  with 
beats  of  the  big  drum,  like  distant  cannon.  The  curtain 
would  go  up  soon ;  it  was  the  time  when  Lily  stretched  her 
legs,  before  giving  her  performance,  and  took  a  breath  of 
air  in  the  painted  forest.  A  click  of  the  padlock  and : 

"Come  along,  Glass-Eye,  the  bike !" 

Lily,  in  spite  of  her  brilliant  successes  in  England,  was 
dead  tired  of  tipping  the  boys ;  it  ran  away  with  all  her 
money.  As  she  allowed  herself  the  luxury  of  a  maid,  by 
Gollywog,  she  might  as  well  make  use  of  her ;  she  wasn't 
going  to  feed  her  to  do  nothing!  And  poor  Glass-Eye 
attended  to  the  bike,  at  the  risk  of  putting  out  her  other 
eye.  Every  day  the  struggle  between  Glass-Eye  and  the 
bike  formed  the  joy  and  the  delight  of  the  passage. 
There  were  incredible  swervings,  scratchings  of  the  wall, 
barkings  of  Glass-Eye's  shins.  Lily  followed  behind, 
bursting  with  laughter,  warning  Glass-Eye  to  take  care 


258  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

or  she  would  put  the  bike  out  of  gear  by  knocking  it 
about  with  her  legs : 

"Oh,  where's  my  belt?"  she  cried,  patting  the  back  of 
her  hand. 

The  artistes,  attracted  by  the  noise,  half-opened  the 
doors ;  laughing  eyes  gleamed  at  the  spy-holes ;  voices 
cried : 

"Go  it !    Never  say  die !" 

Glass-Eye  perspired  like  anything,  pursed  her  eye- 
brows above  her  fat,  red  cheeks,  grumbled,  in  her  White- 
chapel  slang: 

"Kim  up,  you  lousy  moke !  'Igher  up,  Jerusalem,  you 
pig-headed  bag  of  tricks !" 

Lily  lost  patience,  snatched  the  machine  from  her,  ran 
it  down  the  stairs,  pushed  the  door  of  the  "meat-tray," 
and  found  herself  behind  the  scenes,  the  drops  rising  and 
falling,  the  nightly  spectacle  since  she  had  been  "that 
high,"  the  land  of  the  unreal  lights.  And  the  sudden  glare 
from  the  reflectors  set  clusters  of  shoulders  blazing  with  a 
silvery  glow,  brought  up  out  of  the  shade  the  pale  flesh 
of  the  dancing-girls,  heaped  up  behind  the  pillars.  It 
swarmed  from  every  side,  right  and  left — "Hi,  there! 
Meat,  meat!" — under  the  rush  of  the  stage-hands  shift- 
ing the  wings.  There  were  fleecy  foams  of  fair  wigs, 
smiles  from  kiss-me-quick  lips,  blinkings  of  made-up 
eyelids,  a  swarm  of  arms,  thighs  and  necks,  preparatory 
to  a  ballet,  Heures  d'amour,  in  which  Poland,  the  Parisi- 
enne,  triumphed  with  her  costumes  Deshabille  gallant, 
Dessons  diaphanes,  Le  tub,  Volupte,  Dodo,  eight  panto- 
mimic scenes  in  a  sumptuous  setting,  with  girls  to  im- 
personate the  Hours,  from  pale-pink  flirtation  to  scarlet 
desire. 

Lily  watched  this  familiar  sight  with  a  wandering  eye ; 


INTERMEZZO  259 

and  suddenly  she  turned  pale :  what  was  that  ?  Who  was 
that  ?  In  the  midst  of  it  all,  smiling  to  her  from  a  dis- 
tance, as  though  laughing  at  her,  stood  Trampy !  My ! 

"Here,  hold  my  bike,  Glass-Eye !" 

It  was  close  on  her  turn,  but,  before  going  on,  she  had 
a  word  to  say  to  the  stage-manager  and,  walking  up  to 
him: 

"Do  you  see  that  josser  looking  at  me?"  said  Lily, 
pointing  to  Trampy.  "If  he  stays  here,  I  ...  to 
begin  with,  I  shan't  go  on.  I  won't  be  humbugged  by  any 
one!" 

"Who  is  it?" 

"My  husband !" 

"All  right,  darling,"  said  the  stage-manager  and,  sud- 
denly, between  the  scene  which  was  being  hoisted  up  and 
the  other  let  down  on  the  silent,  empty  stage:  "You 
there !  Get  out !" 

Trampy  could  not  believe  that  the  words  were  meant 
for  him.  He  waited  until  the  order  had  been  twice  re- 
peated. He,  an  artiste,  before  those  girls!  He  made  a 
gesture  as  though  to  ask : 

"Do  you  mean  me  ?" 

"Yes,  you !  No  jossers  here,"  said  the  stage-manager. 
"Sling  your  hook !" 

"Gee!"  thought  Lily,  when  he  had  gone.  "This  time 
you've  been  paid  back  in  your  own  coin !  So  you  kicked 
me  out  at  the  Horse  Shoe,  did  you?  It's  my  turn  now, 
you  damned  tramp !" 

She  exulted  with  delight,  as  she  went  through  her  per- 
formance. It  was  her  first  revenge!  the  other's  turn 
would  come  next. 

"I  don't  forgive  and  I  don't  forget,"  she.  muttered  to 
herself.  "Every  dog  has  his  day." 


260  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Oh,  how  happy  she  was !  She  was  magnificent  on  the 
stage,  under  the  flashing  lights,  and  the  dull  sounds  in 
the  orchestra  were  to  her  as  the  throbbing  of  a  riotous 
heart. 

"Well,  Trampy,  you  got  soaked  to-night,  to-night," 
thought  Lily,  as  she  might  have  said,  "One,  two!"  to 
mark  her  times.  "To-night,  to-night.  And,  if  you  don't 
like  it — one,  two — you've  only  got  to  lump  it!  Divorce 
was  made  for  men  and  women,  not  for  dogs !" 

Lily  was  triumphant,  laughed,  winked  her  eye,  as  she 
rode  past,  at  the  stage-manager,  who  threw  her  a  kiss 
and  grinned.  Immediately  after  her  turn,  she  ran  to 
her  dressing-room,  poured  water  on  her  steaming  skin, 
while  the  make-up  trickled  in  pink  streaks  down  her  face, 
and  devoted  an  hour  to  the  dainty  care  of  her  person, 
like  a  cat  licking  itself.  And  then  Lily,  without  paint 
or  powder — awfully  ugly,  not  in  the  least  pretty  off  the 
stage,  as  she  said,  smiling  in  her  muslin  tie  with  the  gold 
spots — Lily  went  out  by  the  front,  to  avoid  the  pros'  cor- 
ridor. 

The  moment  she  was  in  the  lobby,  she  assumed  the  air 
of  a  lady  accompanied  by  her  maid.  She  cast  an  indif- 
ferent eye  at  the  string  of  carriages,  like  one  who  changes 
her  mind  and  prefers  to  walk,  a  smile  to  the  gentlemen 
at  the  controle,  a  nod  to  the  Roofers  going  out,  two  by 
two,  always,  a  dark  one  and  a  fair  one.  Lily  stopped  for 
a  second,  to  look  round.  .  .  . 

Then :  "Let's  go  home,  Glass-Eye !" 

She  took  a  few  steps  along  the  street,  but  a  jolly  voice 
behind  her  cried : 

"Gee,  what  a  spanking  walk !" 

She  turned  round ;  it  was  Trampy  again ! 

"Ah,  this  time,"  thought  Lily,  "I  shall  have  witnesses !" 


261 

She  expected  blows!  She  would  have  given  anything 
to  be  struck :  her  divorce,  at  last,  would  be  hastened  on ! 
Cruelty,  public  insults  !  But  no : 

"How's  my  dear  little  wife  ?"  asked  Trampy,  with  out- 
stretched hand. 

Lily  was  so  greatly  surprised  that  it  took  her  some 
seconds  to  recover  her  presence  of  mind ;  and  then,  with- 
out turning  her  head : 

"Come  away,  Glass-Eye,"  she  said.  "There  are  drunk- 
ards about." 

"Don't  let  us  quarrel,  little  wifie.  Aren't  you  my  dear 
little  wifie  ?  Well,  then  ..." 

And  Trampy  took  her  by  the  arm. 

"Let  me  go,  or  I'll  break  your  jaw,"  muttered  Lily, 
under  her  breath. 

Trampy  seemed  in  a  jovial  mood,  with  his  cigar  in  his 
mouth,  his  cheeks  flushed  with  insolence,  his  eyes  moist 
with  libations. 

"Let's  make  peace,"  said  Trampy.  "Peace  in  the  home  : 
that's  my  motto!" 

"Divorce !"  cried  Lily. 

"Peace  in  the  home  for  me!"  rejoined  Trampy,  who 
grew  the  more  radiant  as  Lily  grew  more  and  more  in- 
censed. 

"Let  me  tell  you,"  he  continued,  puffing  luxuriously 
at  his  cigar,  "that  divorce — why,  how  can  you  think  of 
it? — means  a  public  scandal,  my  name  dragged  in  the 
mud  ..." 

"Footy  rotter !"  roared  Lily. 

"Dragged  in  the  mud ;  and  my  dear  little  wife  left  to 
her  own  resources,  marrying  again,  as  she  feels  inclined, 
marrying  some  one  unworthy  of  her,  perhaps.  I  won't 
have  it!  I'm  responsible  for  you!  I'm  your  natural 


262  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

protector!  You're  not  Miss  Lily,  you're  Mrs.  Trampy. 
You've  been  in  the  wrong,  certainly ;  you  had  me  turned 
off  the  stage,  me,  your  husband ;  but  I  forgive  you." 

"And  I  ...  take  that !"  Lily  broke  in,  spitting  in 
his  face.  "That's  how  /  forgive  you!  Take  that!  And 
that!" 

Trampy  reveled  with  delight : 

"You  are  my  dear  little  wifie,  aren't  you  ?  And  you'll 
remain  so  ...  and  you'll  never  belong  to  any  one 
else,  do  you  hear?  I  am  a  faithful  husband.  You're  try- 
ing for  a  divorce,  I  know,  but  you  won't  get  it.  The 
wrong  is  on  your  side  and  I'm  not  going  to  law,  and 
you're  Mrs.  Trampy  and  Mrs.  Trampy  you'll  remain ! 
Will  you  come  and  have  a  drink,  Mrs.  Trampy  ?"  he  con- 
tinued, lighting  a  fresh  cigar.  "Won't  you?  Very  well. 
Good  night,  wifie !" 

And  Trampy,  turning  his  back  to  her,  disappeared  in  a 
cloud  of  smoke. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Lily  came  home  and  went  straight  to  bed,  without 
even  waiting  for  supper,  so  great  was  her  hurry  to  for- 
get. It  seemed  to  her  that  things  had  happened,  things 
without  end;  that  this  day  had  been  as  long  as  a  year. 
She  simply  could  not  understand  Trampy.  She  could 
have  imagined  anything,  except  that!  She  racked  her 
brain  to  conjecture  how,  why;  and  sleep  quieted  her  till 
the  next  morning;  and  she  woke  up  with  teeth  clenched 
and  eyebrows  set  and  .  .  .  why  ?  Why  ?  And  again 
why?  Did  he  still  want  to  keep  her? — after  realizing  in 
a  hundred  different  ways  that  she  did  not  love  him,  that 
she  loathed  him,  that  she  had  married  him  only  to  escape 
her  whippings  and  that  she  had  but  one  idea  in  her  head : 
to  divorce  him ! 

Now — only  Lily  could  not  know  this — it  was  because 
of  that  very  reason  that  Trampy  clung  to  her,  like  a 
faithful  husband:  Jimmy,  Jimmy  was  his  bugbear.  He 
believed  Jimmy  to  be  in  love  with  his  wife.  Once  Lily 
was  divorced,  Jimmy  could  marry  her;  and  Trampy 
would  see  him  further  first!  The  greater  Jimmy  be- 
came, the  more  jealous  Trampy  grew.  He  knew  the 
steps  Lily  had  taken  to  obtain  a  divorce,  the  witnesses 
she  had  tried  to  secure.  She  was  very  keen  on  a  di- 
vorce, was  she?  All  the  more  reason  for  not  gratifying 
her;  and  she  wasn't  going  to  get  it.  The  witnesses, 
Trampy  had  just  heard,  declined  to  give  evidence. 

263 


264.  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

They  had  seen  nothing,  heard  nothing.  A  bike  at  her 
head?  Maybe.  They  didn't  know.  A  bit  of  a  fuss  be- 
tween artistes,  such  as  you  see  every  day,  and  none  of 
their  damned  business.  Outside  that,  Lily  had  nothing 
to  go  upon;  on  the  contrary.  She  had  abandoned  the 
conjugal  home;  all  the  wrong,  apparently,  was  on  her 
side.  He,  Trampy,  alone  was  entitled  to  file  a  petition ; 
but  that  never !  He  considered  that  Jimmy  and  Lily  had 
trifled  with  him  sufficiently.  He  could  not  swallow  the 
idea  that  they  were  only  waiting  for  the  divorce  to  get 
married ;  the  idea  that  Lily  would  be  Mrs.  Jimmy,  of  her 
own  free  choice,  after  marrying  him,  Trampy,  to  escape 
her  whippings;  no,  he  couldn't  swallow  that!  Now  it 
rested  entirely  with  him  to  prevent  that  marriage.  He 
had  only  to  keep  his  dear  little  wife  for  himself.  In  that 
case,  Jimmy,  if  he  wanted  her,  would  be  obliged  to  do 
without  her  or  else  to  "live  with  her"  and  set  a  bad  ex- 
ample, lavish  bestower  of  good  advice  that  he  was,  the 
dirty  hypocrite,  preaching  morality  to  others !  That  was 
what  Trampy  had  determined  to  do.  As  for  Lily, 
Trampy,  who  was  incapable,  at  bottom,  of  either  hatred 
or  love,  didn't  care  one  way  or  the  other.  He  was  always 
sure  to  want  for  nothing,  so  long  as  there  were  girls  on 
the  boards  and  whisky  in  the  bars. 

There  was  another  reason  still  that  urged  him  to  let 
matters  rest,  without  going  further.  To  embark  on  a 
divorce-case,  to  have  his  name  in  the  papers  and  his  story 
hawked  round  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe — "Trampy, 
you  know.  You  knew  Trampy,  didn't  you  ?  The  husband 
of  Lily?"  and  so  on — was  what  he  didn't  want  at  any 
price,  for  a  reason  known  to  himself.  He  had  made  in- 
quiries, quite  privately,  at  the  beginning,  when  he  thought 
of  petitioning  for  a  divorce;  and  what  he  had  learned 


INTERMEZZO  265 

had  made  him  prudent:  his  marriage  in  America  was 
valid  beyond  a  doubt.  He  was  well  and  duly  married, 
whether  he  liked  it  or  not.  By  the  common  law,  two 
wives  meant  bigamy;  and  bigamy  meant  prison,  which 
was  the  last  thing  he  wanted,  as  he  himself  said.  But, 
so  long  as  there  was  no  scandal,  he  ran  no  great  risk. 
He  had  lived  on  tenter-hooks  at  first,  in  Germany. 
Chance  might  have  brought  him  face  to  face  with  Ave 
Maria,  on  the  stage  of  a  music-hall.  This  danger  was 
not  to  be  feared  now,  so  far  as  he  knew.  Ave  Maria 
and  her  brother  Martello  were  no  longer  fit  stars  for 
Europe,  nor  for  North  America.  He  was  too  well  known 
to  the  agencies;  his  brutality  had  produced  too  many 
complaints,  too  many  denunciations  to  the  police;  it  dis- 
credited any  theater  employing  him.  He  might  have 
come  to  Europe — who  knew? — to  try  to  get  hold  of  the 
Bambinis,  now  that  the  old  man  had  not  much  longer  to 
live.  But  that  was  not  very  likely,  either.  An  artiste, 
come  across  by  accident,  had  seen  the  pair  at  Iquique,  in 
a  wretched  circus  that  was  doing  the  coast  of  Chili.  He 
gave  Trampy  details:  poor  Ave  Maria  had  grown  very 
ugly ;  a  body  all  skin  and  bone  and  nerves ;  no  hips,  no 
chest ;  nothing  of  the  woman  about  her ;  in  the  last  stages 
of  consumption;  and  finished,  as  an  artiste,  done  for; 
no  spring  left  in  her  overworked  thighs,  no  suppleness 
in  her  loins:  even  her  brother,  that  brute,  could  get 
nothing  out  of  her  now.  And  Trampy,  who  knew  Chili, 
followed  them,  in  his  mind,  on  their  tour  along  the  coast, 
from  Iquique  to  Copiapo,  to  Valdivia:  a  trying  climate, 
biting  winds  which  would  kill  her  on  the  spot,  unless 
she  went  and  perished  in  the  fever-stricken  plains  of  the 
Argentine.  .  .  .  When  people  had  fallen  so  low  as  that, 
they  did  not  rise  again :  there  was  nothing  to  fear  from 


266  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

that  side.  But  her  presence  was  not  necessary;  the 
danger  still  existed.  There  were  documents,  in  black 
and  white.  Their  names  were  bracketed  on  a  register 
somewhere  or  other:  he  knew  where.  It  was  better, 
therefore,  in  every  way,  not  to  call  attention  to  himself. 
Meanwhile,  he  was  playing  a  nice  trick  on  Lily  and  her 
Jimmy.  And  Lily  was  Mrs.  Trampy  and  Mrs.  Trampy 
she  would  remain ;  and  that  was  all  there  was  about  it. 

But  it  was  no  use  for  Lily  to  give  herself  a  headache 
trying  to  make  out  why  and  how.  She  did  not  guess 
Trampy's  secret  thoughts,  any  more  than  he  suspected 
the  actual  nature  of  her  relations  with  Jimmy.  For  her, 
too,  one  thing  was  certain:  Mrs.  Trampy  she  was  and 
Mrs.  Trampy  she  would  remain!  She  would  never  be 
free ;  she  would  always  be  chained  to  that  tramp  cyclist ! 
And,  if  a  match  should  happen  to  turn  up  for  her  among 
her  admirers,  the  architect,  for  instance — you  can  never 
tell :  plenty  of  others  had  already  proposed  for  her  hand  in 
marriage,  in  England — she  would  be  obliged  to  refuse! 
And,  if  some  gentleman  were  to  pay  her  his  addresses, 
treat  her  like  a  lady,  take  her  to  choose  a  hat  or  a  silk 
petticoat  in  a  smart  shop,  there  was  somebody  who  would 
have  the  right  to  say  to  her,  as  she  passed : 

"How's  my  little  wife  getting  on?" 

Oh,  those  two  Jim  Crows  round  her,  spoiling  her 
future !  Jimmy  and  Trampy !  They  would  end  by  being 
the  death  of  her.  Oh,  if  she  had  had  Thea's  arm,  what  a 
blow  in  the  jaw  for  one  or  both  of  them !  And  Lily,  when 
she  thought  of  it,  wore  the  face  which  was  hers  on  her 
bad  days,  teeth  clenched,  stubborn  forehead.  Glass-Eye 
shook  in  her  boots  when  she  saw  it,  for  sometimes  Lily 
vented  her  anger  upon  the  poor  girl  with  a  smack,  con- 
sidering herself  quits  if  she  begged  pardon  after  \ 


INTERMEZZO 


267 


"If  it's  one  of  those  footy  rotters,"  growled  Lily,  hear- 
ing a  knock  at  the  door,  "smash  a  bottle  over  his  head !" 

But  no,  it  was  simply  her  letters,  sent  on  from  the 
theater.  Nothing  of  importance  this  morning;  pros- 
pectuses, mostly:  a  wig-maker,  special  theatrical  depart- 
ment; a  manufacturer  of  traveling-hampers,  for  South 
Africa,  Australia.  .  .  . 

"No  use  for  them,"  thought  Lily,  with  a  sigh. 

And,  on  opening  The  Era,  she  received  that  discourag- 
ing sensation :  always  so  many  names,  and  so  many  tricks, 
and   all   "the   best;"   new    ideas   and   troupes,   troupes, 
troupes ;  another  new  troupe  of  fat  freaks,  a  very  flood  of 
them ;  and  Roofers,  Roofers ;  "Greater-Greater  England 
Girls,"  words  and  music  guaranteed,  with  scarlet  legs  and 
muslin  skirts,  complete ;  page  upon  page  of  pink  tights ; 
and  national  troupes  and  colonial  troupes ;  and  one  had  to 
earn  a  livelihood  and  shine  among  all  that !  Lily  was  half 
crushed ;  and  everybody  she 
knew  was  triumphing:  the 
Pawnees,  —  one     hundred 
and  thirty  music-halls,  the 
whole  of  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Trusts,  the  great 
two-years'  tour !  The  Three 
Graces  also  were  continu- 
ing their  triumphs.    Lily, 
who  felt  herself  the  equal 
of  any  of  them,  held  her 
breath  as  she  read  the 
news.    Laurence  had  won 
her   terrible   bet   that   she., 
would  ride  straight  across  / 

•»«•_      _i A. j    c*_i  .f—  —  J    ^— .  *  ttfjf  *  T?  )OFKR 

GIRL 


268  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

her  bike,  hands  tied  together,  feet  fastened  to  the  pedals. 
At  the  Art  Institute  in  Chicago,  Marjutti  had  given  a 
lecture  on  the  art  of  contortion. 

"Some  josser  of  a  journalist  wrote  it  for  her,"  thought 
Lily. 

And  The  Performer  Annual  had  sent  Marjutti  its  set 
of  questions  to  answer,  she  had  been  published  in  print ! 
And  Lily  was  still  waiting!  And  Tom?  Tom  was  in 
England  now,  in  the  De  Frece  circuit ;  had  had  a  triumph 
at  the  Portsmouth  Hippodrome,  as  "Topsy  Turvy  Tom- 
my," dancing  a  sailor's  hornpipe  on  his  hands.  All,  all 
were  successful,  including  others  even  who  were  not  so 
good  as  she  was :  one  who  obtained  engagements  because 
she  had  a  nigger  in  her  show;  another  because  of  a 
monkey. 

"And  I've  done  nothing  yet !"  grumbled  Lily. 

Oh,  to  be  talked  about  in  her  turn,  to  achieve  some- 
thing, to  become  "our  Lily!" 

"It's  twelve  o'clock  and  I'm  still  in  bed!"  she  cried. 
"I  ought  to  be  practising!" 

It  was  just  a  flash  of  pride,  mixed  with  remorse. 
She  knew  it  well  enough ;  often  and  often,  she  had  re- 
proached herself  for  her  idleness,  for  her  habit  of  sleep- 
ing till  the  middle  of  the  day,  of  taking  her  meals  before 
the  performance ;  but  she  would  make  up  for  it  to-mor- 
row! It  is  the  usual  refrain  of  stars  who  have  become 
detached  from  their  troupes,  far  removed  from  regi- 
mental discipline,  so  to  speak:  without  a  Pa,  without  a 
boss,  you  can  do  nothing.  You  must  have  some  one  to 
force  you. 

"A  month  on  the  three  years'  book  before  to-night!" 
prayed  Lily,  touching  her  lucky  charm. 

And  she  studied  the  omens  with  an  expert  air,  gave 


INTERMEZZO  269 

an  ear  to  passing  sounds,  tried  to  catch  the  meaning  of 
them,  for  she  had  visits  to  pay,  letters  to  write,  business, 
damn  it! 

That  was  what  Pa  used  to  say  before  her.  And  it 
was  not  so  easy  to  turn  a  letter  prettily :  that  was  Tram- 
py's  forte.  She  knew  something  about  it.  Lily,  in  her 
night-dress,  with  her  elbows  on  the  table,  bit  her  pen, 
reflected,  in  a  mental  effort  that  gave  her  a  headache. 
And  that  note-paper  wasn't  nice,  either,  without  a  head- 
ing ;  true,  it  only  rested  with  herself ;  every  day  she  was 
approached  with  offers  of  artistic  photographs,  even  of 
tricks  which  she  did  not  do:  standing  with  one  foot  on 
the  saddle,  the  other  in  the  air  and  her  arms  stretched 
out  before  her,  like  a  flying  genius;  or  as  Cupid,  with 
his  dart  in  his  hand :  impossible  things  which  neither  the 
Pawnees  nor  Laurence  would  have  dared  to  attempt! 
But  it  would  look  well,  with  her  name  in  red  letters: 
"Miss  Lily,"  or  "La  Belle  Lily."  Or  else  a  photograph 
showing  her  strolling  in  a  great  park,  with  a  palace  in  the 
background,  taken  from  nature,  followed  by  her  maid, 
or  by  a  footman,  hired  by  the  hour,  for  the  occasion. 

"I  think  I  shall  select  the  governess,"  said  Lily  to 
herself,  "because  of  my  biography ;  it  will  be  nicer,  truer. 
Or  I  might  be  taken  riding  on  the  back-wheel,  like  a  lady 
just  leaving  the  house  and  doing  that  to  amuse  herself?" 

Lily,  still  undecided,  took  up  the  pen  again :  one  foot 
on  the  saddle;  six  pairs  of  tights;  three  dresses;  the 
theaters  at  which  she  had  appeared.  .  .  . 

What  a  pack  of  jossers!  She  couldn't  forgive  the 
agents  for  her  present  want  of  success.  She  was  exas- 
perated. She  felt  inclined  to  go  and  see  the  managers 
themselves,  those  who  had  made  love  to  her  on  the  stage, 
and  to  send  in  her  card  to  them — "Miss  Lily" — just  to 


270  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

teach  those  jossers  of  agents!  Her  independent  ways 
had  already  made  enemies  for  her:  she  knew  that;  but 
how  could  she  help  being  angry?  The  tricks  they  played 
you,  down  to  making  you  miss  a  marriage,  as  had  hap- 
pened in  London,  the  other  day,  to  the  Three  Graces,  to 
one  of  them,  who  had  been  courted,  during  Mr.  Fuchs' 
absence,  by  the  boy-violinist.  Their  agent  had  launched 
into  slanders  and  even  insults  to  prevent  the  marriage, 
which  would  have  split  up  the  troupe  and  broken  the 
contract.  .  .  . 

"What  a  pack  of  nigger-drivers!"  thought  Lily.  "As 
long  as  they  get  their  ten  per  cent.,  the  rest  can  go  hang, 
for  all  they  care!" 

There  was  no  doubt  that  Lily  had  got  out  of  bed  on 
the  wrong  side,  at  the  thought  of  having  to  climb  all 
those  staircases  again  and  to  dance  attendance  with  the 
rotten  lot  in  the  waiting-rooms.  But,  by  Jove,  she  could 
have  boxed  the  ears  of  the  first  agent  she  visited  that 
afternoon!  He  had  the  impudence  to  offer  her  a  mag- 
nificent engagement  in  the  Indian  show  at  Earl's  Court, 
she  to  stain  her  skin  brown,  dye  her  hair  black,  with 
rings  in  her  nose,  at  the  wrists,  at  her  ankles ;  a  costume 
like  Miss  Ruth's,  all  in  gauze;  the  nautch-girl  on  the 
bicycle ;  six  times  a  day,  in  the  open  air,  to  the  sound  of 
tomtoms.  Play  the  negress ;  that's  what  he  offered  her ! 
She  could  not  help  laughing,  in  spite  of  her  anger.  But 
she  became  quite  intractable  and  snubbed  another  agent 
who  suggested  a  one  day's  billet  in  a  tiny  music-hall  at  a 
ridiculous  price. 

"I  don't  give  my  performance  under  five  pounds,  or 
on  a  stage  of  less  than  thirty  feet!"  cried  Lily. 

At  last,  luck  seemed  to  turn ;  she  settled  for  Spain  and 
Portugal,  and  that  same  evening,  at  the  Bijou  Theater, 


INTERMEZZO  271 

she  was  offered  another  engagement,  for  three  months 
hence.  This  contract  would  procure  her  others,  after 
her  spell  of  ill  luck.  Lily  at  once  took  courage  again : 

"Oh,  if  I  had  the  Astrarium !"  she  thought. 

Everywhere,  at  the  theater,  at  the  agents,  people  were 
talking  of  the  new  music-hall.  It  even  became  a  current 
joke.  They  said,  "So-and-So's  performing  at  the  Astra- 
rium," as  though  to  say,  "He's  not  performing!  He's 
living  in  a  castle  in  the  air !"  Every  one  was  talking  of 
the  great  music-hall  which  was  to  open  in  a  few  months 
and  which  was  not  to  be  seen  building  anywhere.  Some 
said  that  it  was  serious ;  they  quoted  engagements :  Tom ; 
the  Three  Graces;  the  impersonator;  nothing  but  turns 
quite  unknown  to  Paris ;  novelties,  nothing  but  novelties : 
Marjutti ;  Laurence,  perhaps ;  or  the  New  Trickers.  Lily 
shivered  when  she  heard  that !  .  .  .  She  opened  wide 
eyes,  like  Alice  in  Wonderland.  Oh,  to  appear  there! 
But  she  had  performed  in  Paris.  Then  she  would  change 
her  name ;  bike  mixed  with  dancing ;  and  her  whole  trick 
done  backward,  as  Pa  had  once  advised  Trampy  to  do  in 
Mexico !  Oh,  if  she  could  have  that !  Lily  Godiva,  un- 
dressed on  the  bike !  She'd  show  them  she  was  a  lady, 
not  a  performing  dog !  The  Astrarium,  that  was  certain, 
would  open  in  Paris  in  a  few  months.  Harrasford  had 
said  so  himself.  There  was  no  doubt  about  it.  They 
even  told  the  name  of  the  stage-manager,  Joe  Brooks,  the 
cleverest  of  all.  Lily  felt  herself  carried  away  with  am- 
bition. Oh !  to  open  there !  Oh,  if  it  were  true !  God 
grant  that  it  might  come  true !  Oh,  if  Daisy,  their  star, 
could  only  break  a  leg!  The  few  days  which  Lily  was 
still  to  remain  in  Paris,  before  leaving  for  Spain,  she 
employed  in  obtaining  further  information.  She  learned 
the  most  exact  particulars.  Incredible  though  it  seemed, 


272  THE    BILL -TOPPERS 

the  Astrarium  was  to  open  quite  shortly !  The  blue-chins 
discussed  the  thing,  amid  clouds  of  tobacco  smoke,  in  the 
bars,  after  the  show.  To  allude  to  it  now  was  not  like 
talking  of  castles  in  the  air ;  on  the  contrary.  To  tease  a 
pal,  one  said : 

"You're  opening  at  the  Astrarium,  aren't  you  ?  I  don't 
think!" 

Which  was  another  way  of  saying: 

"The  Astrarium's  no  place  for  you !  They're  taking 
nothing  but  bill-toppers  there !" 

The  new  music-hall,  even  before  it  came  into  existence, 
was  beginning  to  spread,  like  the  story  of  the  whippings ; 
it  would  be  talked  about,  all  round  the  world,  as  something 
stunning,  a  more  complete  show  than  the  Tivoli  at  Sidney 
or  the  New  York  Hippodrome.  Harrasford  was  cred- 
ited with  designs  for  a  palace  in  onyx  and  marble.  He 
had  bought  or  was  going  to  buy  a  theater  with  the  object 
of  transforming  it ;  names  and  prices  were  given.  Every- 
body was  interested  in  it.  Just  now,  especially,  when 
the  bioscopes  and  the  gramophones  and  the  singers  were 
taking  the  bread  out  of  the  "artistes' "  mouths,  it  meant 
twenty  turns  more  to  receive  princely  salaries  there; 
and,  every  month,  that  galaxy  of  stars,  which  Harras- 
ford would  send  shooting  to  Paris,  was  to  disperse 
toward  Brussels,  Antwerp,  Marseilles,  Hamburg:  the 
European  Trust,  the  Moss  and  Stoll  tour  of  the  conti- 
nent, managed  by  Harrasford,  the  great  English  man- 
ager. 

To  open  at  the  Astrarium  meant  having  work  insured 
and  your  three  years'  book  filled  for  ever  so  long ;  meant 
appearing  in  public,  later,  wearing  on  your  chest  the 
medal  which  they  meant  to  distribute  in  memory  of  the 
opening.  Gee,  Lily  had  a  pain  in  her  si4e  at  the  thought 


273 

of  it!  The  Three  Graces,  it  was  said,  were  on  the  pro- 
gram. Lily  would  have  consulted  them — there  was  no 
jealousy  about  the  Graces — but  they  were  not  yet  in  Paris. 
Oh,  Lily  was  longing-  and  dying  to  be  settled !  Who  was 
Harrasford's  agent?  If  she  had  to  go  to  London  to  see 
him,  she  would  go. 

Why,  damn  it,  she  would  go  to  Heaven  itself  to  get 
the  Astrarium !  Anything,  anything  to  open  there !  That 
dream  of  greatness  made  her  endure  her  present  vexa- 
tions. Mrs.  Trampy  .  .  .  Mrs.  Trampy  .  .  .  She 
was  addressed  as  Mrs.  Trampy  everywhere.  Trampy 
must  be  telling  the  story,  taking  his  revenge  for  the  whip- 
pings, making  little  of  her  in  his  turn.  One  night  even, 
the  night  before  her  departure  for  Spain,  when  the  archi- 
tect was  to  wait  for  her  at  the  door  of  the  theater,  Lily, 
who  had  dressed  herself  in  her  best,  once  more  had  the 
humiliation  of  being  accosted  by  Trampy  in  front  of 
everybody. 

"Hullo,  wifie!  How  are  you,  darling?  All  right?" 
Lily  bristled  with  rage  as  she  left  Paris.  Even  when 
she  was  far  away,  she  still  felt  that  she  was  dragging 
a  chain  which  lengthened  out  endlessly  without  breaking. 
Never,  oh,  nothing  could  ever  get  her  out  of  that !  Yes, 
a  brilliant  triumph.  Then,  at  least,  she  could  crush  him 
from  the  height  of  her  success,  that  footy  rotter  with  his 
red-hot  stove !  Oh,  what  a  grudge  she  bore  him !  Jimmy 
was  different :  that  was  a  wound  of  her  own  and  nobody 
would  ever  know ;  but  Trampy,  who  laughed  at  her  every- 
where and  called  himself  her  husband !  He  would  make 
her  lose  all  her  friends.  To  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that 
those  tales  perhaps  counted  for  much  in  her  failure :  they 
were  repeated  from  mouth  to  mouth.  Oh,  her  profession 
disgusted  her  at  times !  And  to  think  that  she,  an  English 


274  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

girl,  was  going  to  earn  her  bread  among  the  Dagoes, 
instead  of  starring  in  England ! 

Her  wandering  life  continued ;  her  journeys  from  town 
to  town,  in  the  Spanish  provinces,  her  arrival  in  the  chill 
of  the  morning,  her  anxiety  about  her  salary,  the  hustle 
and  bustle  of  departure  and — trot,  trot,  trot! — lugged 
about  in  the  railway-carriage,  like  a  performing  dog  in 
his  box. 

And  what  theaters!  It  was  worse  than  Germany  or 
even  Paris.  In  England,  on  the  Harrasford  tour  or  the 
Bill  and  Boom,  they  had  nice  dressing-rooms,  with  a  car- 
pet, water  hot  and  cold,  quick  attendance,  stairs  swept 
every  day.  Here,  old  plaster  and  those  idiots  who  looked 
as  if  they  understood  nothing — it  took  three  of  them  to 
shift  a  scene — Dagoes  who  asked  her  straight  out,  in 
Pidgin-English,  if  she  was  alone : 

"No  man  viz  you?" 

It  touched  her  on  the  raw.  Lily  lost  all  her  cheerful- 
ness :  to  begin  with,  that  engagement  was  not  a  particu- 
larly brilliant  one ;  it  was  not  at  all  calculated  to  prompt 
her  to  do  better,  to  introduce  novelties  into  her  turn. 
Besides,  on  stages  not  yet  overrun  with  Roofers  or  fat 
freaks,  an  artiste  performing  by  herself  made  an  impres- 
sion. Her  old  tricks  sufficed;  sometimes  she  topped  the 
bill: 

"Theaters  are  the  same  everywhere;  artistes  the  same 
everywhere,  from  New  York  to  Bilbao.  Topping  the 
bill  in  one  means  topping  the  bill  in  the  others  .  .  . 
doesn't  it,  Glass-Eye  ?" 

But  she  knew  quite  well  that  it  didn't;  and,  besides, 
that  satisfaction  of  her  vanity  put  no  money  in  her  pocket. 
The  amount  she  owed,  my !  She  thought  of  the  past,  of 
what  she  had  earned  for  "them"  since  Mexico.  If  she 


INTERMEZZO  275 

had  only  had  half  of  it,  a  quarter,  a  quarter  of  a  quarter, 
damn  it! 

Meantime,  she  had  to  make  herself  respected.  In  those 
countries,  where  people  used  gestures  when  they  spoke  to 
you,  a  lady  could  not  be  too  careful.  Why,  the  men 
treated  an  English  girl  just  as  they  treated  their  own 
women.  She  could  have  flung  her  bike  at  their  heads! 
And  they  kept  it  up  all  night,  as  in  Russia,  all  except  the 
jewels ;  you  had  to  stay  till  morning  and  were  expected  to 
accept  invitations  for  supper,  so  as  to  keep  the  customer 
there  and  push  business!  A  little  more  and  she  would 
have  had  to  sleep  there!  She  had  threatened  to  tear  up 
her  contract,  to  complain  to  the  consul.  And  what  an- 
noyed her  also  was  being  in  the  same  dressing-room  with 
singers  who  undressed  without  shame,  while  receiving 
their  friends,  and  made  eyes  at  Lily  worse  than  the  im- 
personator. 

And  she  had  to  have  her  food  at  the  theater,  no  des- 
sert, nothing  but  a  biscuit  or  an  apple ;  and,  if  she  asked 
for  a  pear,  it  caused  a  terrible  to-do.  Rather  than  stand 
that,  Lily  went  to  the  hotel,  which  put  her  to  double  ex- 
pense, for  the  board  at  the  theater  was  compulsory.  She 
had  to  pay  in  any  case ;  so  that  she  went  away  without  a 
farthing,  thinking  herself  very  lucky  if  the  manager  did 
not  try  to  kiss  her  in  his  office.  Oh,  the  things  she  saw, 
the  things  she  rubbed  shoulders  with,  the  vice,  the  pro- 
miscuity, the  rushes  of  girls  in  the  passages  before  the 
onslaughts  of  footy  rotters,  direct  propositions,  with  eyes 
looking  straight  into  eyes,  brief  wooings  on  the  stairs, 
behind  the  properties,  between  people  just  about  to  take 
the  train,  one  east,  the  other  west,  and  in  a  hurry  to  have 
done  with  it;  a  silent  embrace  in  the  dressing-room,  a 
neigh,  a  kiss ;  and  ail  revoir,  ta-ta ! 


276  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

And  the  conversations  between  the  stage-girls,  who 
were  always  surrounded  by  legends  of  the  white  slave- 
trade;  stories  of  disappearances;  of  "engagements  for 
Caracas"  and  rinding  one's  self  over  there  without  re- 
sources, stranded  in  a  bad  house:  like  that  poor  girl,  a 
Roofer,  who  had  received  a  letter  and  some  sweets  in  her 
slipper,  which  she  had  sent  flying  into  the  audience  with  a 
high  kick — Lily  remembered — well,  she  had  disappeared 
in  South  America,  somewhere ;  one  or  two  despairing  let- 
ters and  then  silence.  And  that  other  one,  at  Alexandria, 
who  had  called  out  for  help,  behind  her  green  blinds; 
and  ever  and  ever  so  many  others,  whom  she  had  known 
slightly.  Lily  shivered :  brrrrrr ! 

She  was  sick  to  death  of  it.  She  had  had  enough  of  it, 
was  fed  up  with  it.  She  aspired  to  better  things.  Lily 
had  hoped  that  her  engagement  in  Spain  would  have 
marked  the  end  of  her  bad  luck ;  but  no,  nothing  offered. 
She  was  sour,  bitter,  fierce ;  a  wild  bull,  a  stallion,  as  Ma 
used  to  say.  And  she  became  especially  terrible  now,  when 
her  energy  was  spent  in  neither  work  nor  love,  so  much 
so  that  there  was  a  cross  against  her  name  in  the  agents' 
books. 

Oh,  she  had  often  felt  inclined  to  send  them  all  to  the 
Idevil:  the  made-up  eyes,  the  kiss-me-quick  lips,  the  tow 
wigs,  the  low  jokes,  the  monkey-claws !  There  were  some 
who  had  merit,  no  doubt,  like  that  boy  who  was  all  over 
scratches,  from  head  to  foot,  through  training  cats;  but 
the  rest,  almost  all  of  them,  were  a  pack  of  good-for- 
nothings  who  copied  their  betters:  amateurs,  jossers  all; 
and  they  had  more  work  than  she,  who  had  taken  such 
pains  and  who  had  made  a  fortune  for  her  Pa.  Oh,  if 
that  wasn't  enough  to  make  her  chuck  everything  and  see 
life,  in  her  turn.  She  had  only  to  choose  .  .  . 


INTERMEZZO  277 

These  reflections  came  to  her  more  particularly  when 
she  returned  to  Paris,  after  Brussels  and  Copenhagen,  and 
was  again  performing  at  the  Bijou  Theater,  where  she 
had  already  appeared. 

"To  make  all  that  money,"  thought  Lily,  when  she  saw 
Poland  again,  "and  never  to  have  been  through  the  mill !" 

She  admired  Poland  for  that,  envied  her  good  man- 
ners, her  grace,  the  way  she  slipped  on  her  dressing- 
wrap  in  the  living  picture,  The  Bath.  She  turned  green 
with  jealousy  at  the  sight  of  Poland's  motor-car,  her  thou- 
sand-pound ear-rings,  her  sable  furs.  It  was  not  that  Lily 
lacked  admirers  or  sympathizers.  She  even  had  a  little 
triumph  at  the  Bijou  Theater,  one  day  when  she  passed 
round  the  hat  for  old  Martello,  who  was  ill  in  bed  and 
penniless.  Lily  topped  the  bill  in  her  own  fashion,  by 
putting  her  name  at  the  head  of  the  list,  and  the  collec- 
tion was  a  success,  everybody  contributed  .  .  .  includ- 
ing the  architect,  who  was  still  prowling  round  her,  in 
the  passages,  on  the  stage,  everywhere.  Lily  was  decid- 
edly courted:  the  rich  bookmaker  who  ran  the  theater 
as  his  private  harem,  he,  too,  patted  her  cheek  in  a  funny 
way,  complimented  her  on  her  firm,  round  hips  before 
the  group  of  dancing-girls  packed  like  poultry,  in  the 
shadow  of  the  pillars.  Gee,  it  only  rested  with  herself 
to  have  as  much  of  that  as  Poland!  And  everything 
reeked  with  love,  amid  the  cannonade  of  the  big  drums 
and  the  clash  of  the  cymbals,  while  the  sudden  flashes 
of  the  reflectors,  moonlight-blue  on  one  side,  bright-red 
on  the  other,  lit  up  all  around  her  the  herd  of  the  languid 
Hours.  But  her  heart  swelled  and  puffed  with  pride. 
No,  no,  not  that!  She  would  succeed  by  her  talent, 
damn  it,  not  by  getting  round  men!  She,  an  English 
girl ;  she,  Pa's  daughter ;  she,  who  had  gone  through  the 


278  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

mill,  to  sell  herself  like  cat's  meat!  Never!  And  her 
Ma  should  beg  her  pardon  on  her  knees,  on  her  knees, 
damn  it!  The  thought  infuriated  her. 

She  was  quite  sincere  with  herself.  It  was  all  her  fault. 
She  ought  to  have  worked  and  practised,  practised  every 
day,  improved  and  improved  her  turn ;  but  she  would  do 
so  now,  to-morrow.  It  was  her  last  chance.  She  had 
hardly  any  money  left ;  her  three  years'  book  was  virgin 
once  again,  unsoiled  by  contracts ;  but  she  had  a  stage  to 
practise  on  and  she  was  going  to  practise  to-morrow  even 
if  she  had  to  pay  somebody  to  run  after  her,  with  the  belt, 
if  need  be !  Lily  had  nothing  but  that  in  her  head  now : 
to  get  out  of  her  present  life,  to  get  out  of  the  mud,  to 
reach  the  summit  at  a  bound.  Was  it  possible?  She 
consulted  the  Zanzigs ;  she  spent  a  fortune  in  penny-in- 
the-slot  machines  to  learn  the  future,  but  always  received 
the  same  reply : 

"You  will  marry  the  man  who  loves  you.  You  will  be 
very  happy." 

She  smiled  with  pity  when  she  read  that  nonsense ;  to 
prophesy  her  marriage :  how  silly !  She  was  only  too  much 
married !  That  was  not  what  she  wanted  to  know ;  but 
the  Astrarium!  the  Astrarium!  Would  she  be  there  or 
would  she  not?  The  New  Trickers  were  plotting  to 
get  there,  with  a  turn  which  she  had  given  them,  goose 
that  she  was ;  and  Cousin  Daisy,  that  farthing  dip,  would 
triumph  and  not  she,  a  star,  a  real  one !  Lily  was  rather 
in  the  position  of  Pa,  when  he  arrived  in  London  from 
New  York  .  .  .  with  this  difference,  that  Pa  had 
money  and  Lily  had  none.  But  there  was  the  same  display 
of  energy,  once  her  pride  was  aroused.  Lily  also  had  run 
round  Paris  like  a  mad  thing :  not  to  the  agents ! — with 
them  it  was:  "Lily?  Lily  Clifton?  nothing  your  way 


279 

to-day!" — but  to  her  friends  and  acquaintances,  to  find 
out  about  the  Astrarium.  Lily  grew  crazy  at  the  idea 
that  she  might  perform  there,  be  there  at  the  opening, 
ride  over  all  of  them,  treat  the  New  Trickers  like  so 
many  fat  freaks! 

"Oh,  God,  if  it  were  true!"  she  cried,  with  her  hand 
on  her  lucky  charm.  "God  above  grant  that  it  may  come 
true !" 

She  was  at  the  end  of  her  tether.  Nothing  short  of  the 
Astrarium  could  set  her  on  her  legs  again.  She  had  no 
choice ;  it  was  either  that  or  an  absolute  come-down :  the 
nautch-girl  on  the  bike,  at  Earl's  Court,  or  else  nights  of 
dissipation,  champagne  and  diamonds,  like  Poland;  and 
Lily,  like  her  Pa  in  the  old  days,  clenched  her  fists  and 
gnawed  her  lip  as  she  went  off  to  the  Three  Graces,  who 
had  their  engagement  and  who  would  be  able  to  give  her 
some  hints. 

Lily  knew  their  hotel  by  reputation.  Nothing  but  pros ; 
a  rallying-point  of  troupes,  an  hotel  where  nobody's  skin 
was  free  from,  bruises  and  where,  from  morning  until 
night,  you  heard  the  clatter  of  the  clog-dancers'  heels. 
It  reeked  of  potatoes,  of  sleepers  three  in  a  bed ;  chests, 
strange-shaped  packing-cases,  ticketed  with  distant 
labels,  made  the  yard  look  like  the  stage-entrance  of  a 
music-hall.  Lily  did  not  care  for  that  sort  of  place:  no 
matter;  besides,  the  Bambinis  were  there  and  their  mad 
rushes,  their  yells  of  mirth  filled  the  gloomy  house  with 
gaiety.  And  Lily  did  not  mind  walking  in  with  her  gold- 
tasseled  hat  on.  All  those  heads  at  the  windows:  it  was 
just  like  a  fine  lady  visiting  the  poor.  And  yet  she  was 
not  proud  now.  Formerly,  she  would  have  laughed  on 
learning  the  kind  of  life  led  by  the  Three  Graces,  those 
three  girls  who  remained  good  so  as  not  to  break  up  the 


280 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 


troupe  and  annoy  Nunkie  and  who  were  said  to  spend 
their  spare  time  in  sewing  and  cooking  and  doing  San- 
dow  exercises  and  measuring  one  another  round  the 
biceps  and  the  chest :  simple  joys,  the  only  true  ones. 

"They  may  be  right,  after  all,"  thought  Lily,  who  en- 
vied them  from  the  bottom  of  her  heart  for  having  the 
Astrarium.  "If  I  had  only  practised  too!  Practising  is 

certainly  better 
than  attaching 
all  that  impor- 
tance to  dresses 
or  sending  those 
puff  photographs 
to  the  agents !" 

A  surprise 
awaited  Lily 
when  she  entered 
the  hotel ;  p  r  o  s 
were  talking  with 
a  mysterious  air. 
There  was  mut- 
tering in  the  cor- 
ners, a  piece  of 
news  was  going 
round:  the  Bijou 
Theater  had 
closed,  that  very 
day ;  the  treasury 
was  empty,  bankrupt;  everything  sealed  up;  just  on  the 
eve  of  pay-day  too ! 

"My!  Is  it  possible?"  thought  Lily,  distracted  and 
forgetting  the  Astrarium  and  the  Three  Graces.  "And 
what  am  I  to  do  for  food  to-morrow?  Come,  quick, 


THE  BAMBINIS 


The  Three  Graces  at  home      Page  280 


INTERMEZZO  281 

Glass-Eye !"  she  whispered,  catching  her  a  thump  in  the 
ribs.  "To  the  theater,  quick !" 

For  Lily  knew  by  experience  that  it  was  a  good  thing 
to  be  first.  Her  Pa  had  saved  his  salary  once,  in  a  similar 
case,  at  Perth,  in  Australia ;  but  one  must  arrive  in  time. 


CHAPTER  V 

There  was  a  crowd  in  front  of  the  Bijou  when  she  ar- 
rived. They  were  commenting  on  a  notice  pasted  on  the 
door: 

"Ferwt." 

What  could  that  mean  ?  Lily  had  not  provided  for  this 
in  her  vocabulary  of  the  French  language;  but  the  the- 
ater was  closed  until  new  arrangements  could  be  made. 
It  meant  complete  ruin,  enforced  idleness.  .  .  . 

"The  rotten  lot!"  growled  Lily.  "Money,  damn  it, 
money !  Pay  up,  you  pack  of  thieves !" 

But  Lily  soon  recovered  herself,  when  she  saw  that 
there  was  nothing  to  be  done.  She  had  been  through 
worse  than  that,  when  the  iron  curtain  all  but  smashed  her 
to  a  jelly,  at  Milwaukee,  and  when  she  tumbled  into  the 
orchestra,  at  Glasgow !  Notwithstanding  the  anguish  that 
wrung  her  inside  and  heralded  the  coming  hunger,  Lily 
put  a  good  face  on  the  matter  before  all  those  people, 
like  a  lady  who  is  above  that  sort  of  thing :  a  disappoint- 
ment, that  was  all. 

"But  how  will  those  small  artistes  manage?"  she 
seemed  to  say.  "Those  families  with  babies  ?" 

Lily  declared  that  it  was  very  sad,  called  Glass-Eye  to 
witness,  as  usual ;  but  poor  Glass-Eye  remained  dumb, 
reflected  that  she  would  never,  never  be  paid,  if  this  went 
on.  Lily  owed  her  eighteen  months'  wages  now !  True, 
she  got  enough  to  eat,  or  nearly ;  she  traveled  with  Lily ; 
and  she  wore  her  old  hats. 

282 


INTERMEZZO  283 

Meanwhile,  the  door  opened ;  the  artistes  were  allowed 
to  take  away  the  implements  of  their  work,  before  the 
final  closing.  The  move  began:  they  fetched  out  basket 
trunks,  hoisted  packing-cases  on  to  cabs.  It  was  a  heart- 
rending sight,  all  those  things,  made  for  the  glitter  of  the 
footlights,  now  displayed  in  the  street.  And  everybody 
made  such  haste  as  he  could,  under  the  eyes  of  the  in- 
quisitive passers-by,  for  fear  of  a  general  execution,  with 
every  door  sealed  up  and  days  to  wait  before  one  could 
recover  one's  property.  Fellow-artistes  from  other  the- 
aters came  to  look  on.  Some  were  indignant  that  the 
Artistes'  Federation  could  not  take  up  the  matter  and 
hurl  the  experience  of  its  lawyers  at  the  heads  of  the 
proprietor  or  syndicate  responsible,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  moral  weight  of  its  five  thousand  members,  who  had 
already  made  the  English  music-halls  come  to  terms  by 
means  of  a  wholesale  strike.  Others  observed  that  it 
was  a  private  theater,  one  of  those  theaters  run,  for  the 
fun  of  it,  by  some  prosperous  gambler  or  lucky  book- 
maker; a  sort  of  harem  theater,  with  almost  empty 
houses,  but  with  swells  on  the  stage,  among  the  swarm 
of  half-naked  women ;  and  no  one  responsible,  the  old  boy 
ruined,  the  treasury  empty,  bankruptcy;  couldn't  be 
helped ;  take  in  your  belt  a  peg,  that's  all ! 

"What  do  you  think  of  this,  eh,  Lily?"  asked  a  voice. 
"Only  yesterday  we  were  passing  the  hat  for  others !" 

Lily  still  had  the  list ;  and  the  money  was  locked  up  in 
one  of  the  dressing-rooms.  Then  it  passed  from  mouth 
to  mouth,  like  a  watchword :  they  would  give  back  the 
collection;  but  not  in  the  street,  not  before  everybody, 
for  the  honor  of  the  profession.  Lily,  quite  excited,  en- 
tered the  passage  and  there,  in  the  dim  light,  assisted  by 
two  one-legged  artistes,  who  called  out  the  amounts  and 


284  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

ticked  off  the  names,  she  handed  back  the  collection  of 
the  previous  day.  Some  received  their  share  with  an  air 
of  furious  determination ;  others  looked  shy  and  blushed ; 
others,  again,  refused,  Lily  among  them ;  and  it  was  de- 
cided to  go  to  the  "Pros'  Corner,"  or  artistes'  bar,  near 
the  stage  entrance,  to  drink  up  what  remained :  the  ups 
and  downs  of  life,  damn  it !  Your  turn  to-day,  mine  to- 
morrow ;  jolly  lucky  not  to  break  a  leg,  after  all !  And 
their  gaiety  returned,  amid  the  smoke  and  the  glasses, 
through  a  need  of  reaction;  and,  after  the  first  drink  or 
two,  came  jokes,  after-dinner  stories,  impromptus  which 
had  traveled  ten  times  round  the  world  and  brought  tears 
of  laughter  to  the  eyes  of  the  audiences  in  thousands  of 
music-halls,  not  to  speak  of  the  second-class  cabins  of 
every  ship  of  every  line  and  the  smoking-carriages  of 
every  train,  from  the  G.  I.  P.  R.  of  Bombay  to  the  S.  F. 
of  Buenos  Ayres. 

"Owen  Moore  went  West  one  day, 
Owing  more  than  he  could  pay. 
Owen  Moore  came  back  to-day — 
Owing  more !" 

And  they  joined  in  the  chorus  and  they  sang,  "We  all 
came  into  this  world  with  nothing!"  and  the  one-legged 
artistes  beat  time  with  their  crutches,  my !  the  pink  Hour 
and  the  scarlet  Hour,  who  were  there,  got  a  stitch  in 
their  sides.  Lily,  with  her  head  flung  back,  full-throated, 
laughed  nervously.  Besides,  as  she  said,  artistes  did  as 
they  pleased  and  didn't  care  a  hang  for  anybody!  All 
made  plans  for  the  morrow,  all  had  been  through  that 
sort  of  thing  before  and  much  worse,  too:  six  stories 
cleared  at  a  bound,  to  escape  from  a  theater  in  flames! 


INTERMEZZO  285 

Falls  of  seventy  feet  on  one's  head !  And  wrecks !  And 
waves  miles  high !  Already  they  began  to  talk  of  going 
away,  of  traveling;  traced  the  route  with  their  finger 
on  the  table:  Cape  Town,  Australia,  the  States.  To 
listen  to  them,  those  everlasting  wanderers  seemed  to 
have  pretty  nearly  the  whole  world  under  their  hands. 
They  spoke  of  taking  a  rest  at  their  permanent  addresses : 
good  old  London ;  good  old  Manchester ;  there  was  noth- 
ing like  good  old  England,  after  all,  eh?  They'd  had 
enough  of  the  Dago  countries ! 

But  enthusiasm  broke  out  when  the  great  news  arrived, 
brought  by  some  one  straight  from  the  agencies:  Har- 
rasford — "Guess,  boys!" — Harrasford  had  bought  the 
Bijou  Theater!  It  was  all  signed  and  sealed.  He  was 
carrying  out  his  program :  and  he  wanted  to  open  at  once. 
For  three  months,  it  appeared,  there  had  been  a  silent 
struggle  between  him  and  the  unlucky  bookmaker,  who 
did  not  want  to  sell;  and  Harrasford  had  got  it  almost 
for  nothing;  he  had  practically  won  it,  yesterday,  at  the 
races, — with  Dare  Devil,  his  wonderful  horse.  Dare 
Devil  had  beaten  Cataplasm,  his  rival's  colt,  and  the 
smash  had  followed  at  once :  the  Bijou  closed ;  a  forced 
sale;  Harrasford  had  bagged  it;  and  that  was  one,  with 
more  to  come ! 

The  artistes  were  carried  away  by  this  daring  stroke! 
Harrasford,  a  son  of  a  gun,  who  could  put  them  all  in 
his  pocket !  The  one-legged  artistes  fought  a  mock  duel 
between  France  and  England,  the  victor  to  marry  Lily: 
what  did  they  think  of  that  ?  Hurrah ! 

"Say,  boys,  which  is  the  quickest  way  of  dropping 


money 


"Fast  women!" 
"No,  slow  horses!" 


286  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

It  was  grand.  They  drank  to  everybody's  health.  They 
drank  to  Harrasford  ;  they  drank  to  the  Astrarium  !  They 
counted  the  money  on  the  bar-counter;  the  amount  of 
the  collection  had  been  greatly  exceeded  and  somebody 
suggested  that  it  was  a  nice  thing,  upon  my  word,  yes, 
a  very  nice  thing,  what  they  were  doing:  having  a  good 
time,  while  the  Bambinis,  perhaps,  were  going  to  bed 
without  any  supper !  The  whiskies  and  sodas  had  warmed 
their  hearts :  my  turn  to-day,  yours  to-morrow,  damn  it ! 
It  might  happen  to  any  of  them,  to  hop  the  twig  and 
leave  Bambinis  behind  him. 

"Lily,  the  hat!" 

And  Lily  handed  round  the  hat  again  and  collected 
more  than  on  the  day  before,  even  among  those  who  had 
had  their  money  back. 

"Take  that  to  the  Bambinis,"  they  said.  "We've  been 
behaving  like  Dagoes,  damn  it !  Artistes  ought  not  to  act 
as  such !" 

"  'K  you !    'K  you !" 

And  Lily  Clifton  walked  off,  very  proudly,  with  her 
maid,  to  hand  the  money  to  Nunkie,  who  was  acting  as 
treasurer. 

"And,  meantime,  one's  got  to  live,"  said  Lily  to  herself, 
when  she  was  outside. 

After  the  spurious  gaiety  of  the  moment,  she  seemed  to 
be  returning  to  her  distress,  with  no  work,  no  money,  the 
Bijou  closed,  Harrasford  taking  possession  of  the  theater. 
She  revolved  all  this  in  her  head,  without  succeeding  in 
connecting  the  whole:  rags  of  ideas  hung  in  her  brain, 
like  the  strips  of  scenery  at  the  back  of  the  stage. 
She  had  not  even  the  courage  to  go  and  take  her  bike 
.  .  .  to-morrow  .  .  .  to-morrow.  The  Hours,  the 
pink  one  and  the  scarlet  one,  who  came  out  of  the  bar 


INTERMEZZO  287 

also,  resigned  themselves  gaily.  Their  salary  mattered  so 
little.  As  they  explained  to  Lily,  you're  always  well  paid, 
when  you  have  rich  friends,  and,  if  you  haven't,  all  you 
have  to  do  is  to  look  out  for  them : 

"Like  Poland,  what !  A  fat  lot  she  cares  the  old  boy's 
ruined!  All  she  will  do  is  to  find  another,  change  her 
owner !" 

Lily  had  knocked  up  against  everything,  seen  every- 
thing, heard  everything,  in  her  adventurous  life ;  but  this 
way  of  getting  out  of  a  difficulty  always  made  her  blush 
to  her  eyes.  No,  a  triumph  at  the  Astrarium :  that  was  the 
only  solution  for  her,  Lily  Clifton!  She  was  eager  also 
to  hand  the  money  to  Nunkie.  The  Bambinis'  money  was 
a  different  matter  from  Jimmy's :  they  were  hungry  chil- 
dren. Nunkie  must  be  at  the  theater  now,  with  his  Three 
Graces,  quite  close,  and  they  were  going  to  perform  at  the 
Astrarium.  So  it  was  not  essential  never  to  have  appeared 
in  Paris !  That  meant  one  more  chance  for  her ! 

"Come  along,  Glass-Eye!" 

They  now  passed  into  the  noisy  quarters.  The  Olympia 
opened  its  furnace  of  light  before  them.  The  Three 
Graces  stood  displayed  in  life-size  on  posters,  with  others 
beside  them,  names  which  Lily  knew  vaguely,  as  she 
knew  them  all,  from  seeing  them  somewhere, — as  she 
knew  the  stage-entrance  of  the  Olympia,  by  instinct,  in 
the  dark  street,  at  the  side :  the  mouth  by  which  the  mon- 
ster nightly  swallowed  and  rejected  its  fill  of  meat.  A 
courtyard  .  .  .  three  steps  up  ...  turn  to  the 
right  .  .  .  Lily  was  at  home  again,  amid  rainbow 
lights. 

"Hullo,  Lily !" 

It  was  Nunkie  greeting  her  on  the  stage,  while  his  dear 
girls  were  dressing  in  their  room.  He  took  the  money  for 


288 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 


the  Bambinis,  congratulated  Lily  on  the  result  of  her  col- 
lection, thanked  her. 

"And  what  about  the  Astrarium?"  asked  Lily.  "Do 
you  know  ...  ?" 

Of  course,  Nunkie 
knew.  His  dear 
girls  were  engaged 
to  perform  there. 
And  he  had  seen 
some  one  on  his  way 
t  o  t  h  e  theater :  the 
opening  would  take 
place  in  a  month 
.  .  .  in  six  weeks 
at  the  latest.  ... 
The  a  r  c  h  i  t  e  c  t — 
"You  know,  Lily?" 
said  Nunkie — the  ar- 
chitect who  used  to 
hang  about  on  the 
stage,  in  the  passages, 
on  some  pretext  or 
other — to  make  love 
to  girls,  apparently — 
was  minding  every- 
thing  for  Harras- 
ford!  He  was  taking 
measurements,  drawing  out  plans: 

"Everything  is  ready  in  advance,  everything's  ordered ; 
they've  only  got  to  put  things  in  their  places;  the  work- 
men will  start  to-morrow." 

"So  that's  what  he  came  for!"  thought  Lily  angrily. 
"The  damned  parley-voo!" 


289 

"And  your  Pa,  you  know,"  continued  Nunkie,  "will  be 
there  too,  with  his  New  Trickers:  it  would  have  been 
easy,  for  you  to  get  there  first,"  he  added,  with  a  meaning 
smile. 

"The  New  Trickers !  Daisy  Woolly-legs !"  stammered 
Lily,  turning  pale.  "Who  told  you  so?" 

"I'm  sure  of  it,  I  had  it  from  Jimmy  himself,"  replied 
Nunkie. 

"Jimmy  told  you?  And  what  has  Jimmy  to  do  with 
it?"  asked  Lily,  anguish-stricken. 

"What  has  he  to  do  with  it  ?  Why,  he's  simply  going 
to  top  the  bill,"  said  Nunkie.  "And,  besides,  Harrasford 
has  left  it  to  himi  to  make  out  the  program.  Why,  didn't 
you  know?  .  .  .  Your  friend  Jimmy  ...  ?" 

She  was  in  the  street  once  more,  feeling  weak-kneed 
and  light-headed.  She  leaned  on  Glass-Eye's  arm ;  she 
had  a  pain  in  her  side  from  the  emotion.  She  felt  inclined 
to  enter  a  cafe,  to  get  drunk  on  champagne,  to  forget. 

The  next  day  an  awful  headache  made  her  keep  her 
room. 

"To-morrow,"  she  said  to  Glass-Eye,  "to-morrow  I 
will  fetch  my  bike." 

She  dared  not  go  out ;  she  felt  as  if  it  was  written  on 
her  forehead : 

"The  New  Trickers  at  the  Astrarium!  Daisy  Woolly- 
legs  at  the  Astrarium  and  not  you !" 

And,  "to-morrow,"  again  she  spent  the  day  stretched 
on  her  bed.  And  the  next  day,  well,  as  she  had  to  ... 
as  her  bike  was  her  bread-winner,  after  all  ...  her 
only  bread-winner,  whatever  happened !  .  .  . 

"Come  on,  Glass-Eye !  Let's  go  for  the  bike !  I  don't 
care  if  I  do  play  the  darky  at  Earl's  Court !" 

But,  on  reaching  the  Bijou,  she  could  not  restrain  a 


290  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

cry.  Nunkie  had  spoken  the  truth;  they  were  at  work 
everywhere,  unloading  joists,  running  up  scaffoldings,  at- 
tacking the  theater  from  every  side.  Her  friend,  the 
architect,  passed,  looking  very  busy,  greeted  her  with  a 
"Hullo,  Lily !"  But  Lily  did  not  even  see  him. 

"I  hope  our  things  are  still  in  the  dressing-room. 
Hurry  up,  Glass-Eye !" 

And  Lily  ran  along  the  passage,  where  already  sacks 
of  plaster  had  taken  the  place  of  the  velvet  and  nickel 
properties.  She  crossed  the  stage,  which  was  still  un- 
touched, took  the  dressing-room  corridor  and  there,  al- 
most before  her  door,  met  Jimmy !  She  felt  like  turning 
her  back  on  him,  after  spitting  on  the  floor,  as  a  mark 
of  contempt;  but,  after  all,  no!  The  coward!  They'd 
see  which  of  them  should  lower  eyes  first!  And  she 
planted  hers  straight  in  his  face,  like  a  blow  of  the  fist ! 

Jimmy,  who  was  coming  toward  her,  had  a  moment  of 
hesitation  .  .  .  but  it  did  not  last.  He  soon  recovered 
himself.  It  would  have  been  obvious  to  any  one  seeing  that 
masterful  face  that  here  was  a  man  cured  of  his  love,  a 
strong  man  and  sure  of  himself,  a  man  whom  a  kid  like 
Lily — Lily  had  always  remained  a  kid  to  him,  and  not 
Mrs.  Trampy,  not  the  wife  of  Trampy,  that  thief  in  the 
night! — a  man  whom  a  kid  like  Lily  could  not  have  at 
her  beck  and  call.  And  he  held  out  his  hand,  like  a  good 
friend,  simply,  among  artistes : 

"How  do  you  do,  Lily?    Delighted  to  see  you." 

"Glass-Eye,"  said  Lily,  opening  the  door  of  her  dress- 
ing-room, "Glass-Eye,  my  bag  .  .  .  the  key  of  my 
trunk  ...  get  out  the  bike  first.  One  can't  turn  in 
this  rotten  hole,"  she  added,  as  she  entered. 

And,  as  Glass-Eye  seemed  all  day  releasing  the  bike 
from  the  hooked-up  skirts  and  tights  hanging  from  the 


INTERMEZZO  291 

wall,  to  say  nothing  of  the  kicks  which  she  received  from 
the  pedals,  Lily,  grumbling,  snatched  it  out  of  her  hands, 
and  ordered  her  maid  to  go  and  wait  for  her  in  the  street, 
great  good-for-nothing  that  she  was ! 

"So  you  refuse  to  speak  to  me  ?"  asked  Jimmy. 

Lily  lowered  her  head,  took  no  more  notice  of  him  than 
if  he  had  not  been  there,  collected  her  clothes,  pulled  the 
golly wog  from  the  wall  without  the  slightest  regard, 
heaped  up  everything  promiscuously  in  the  trunk,  thump- 
ing it  down  with  her  fists,  as  though  eager  to  have  done 
with  it. 

"Come,  Lily,  are  you  still  angry  with  me?"  asked 
Jimmy,  quite  at  a  loss.  "When  you  took  me  by  surprise 
that  day,  at  Whitcomb  Mansions  .  .  ." 

"A  lot  I  care  for  your  love !"  growled  Lily  contemptu- 
ously. 

"But  my  friendship,  Lily    .     .    ." 

"Your  friendship,"  said  Lily,  "your  friendship  .  .  . 
a  rag !  I'll  show  you  how  I  value  your  friendship !"  she 
said,  flinging  a  dirty  towel  on  the  floor  and  stamping  on  it 
in  her  rage. 

"And  that  Daisy  Woolly-legs !"  resumed  Lily,  with  an 
unspeakable  expression  of  scorn  on  her  face. 

"What  do  you  mean?"  asked  Jimmy,  who  did  not  un- 
derstand. 

"Giving  that  shop  to  the  New  Trickers !"  she  continued 
violently.  "You  who  always  used  to  talk  of  my  talent ! 
Giving  a  shop  like  that  to  those  New  Trickers,  who 
haven't  as  much  talent  among  the  six  of  them  as  I  have 
in  my  little  finger !  .  .  .  You !  To  treat  me  like  that ! 
.  .  .  When  I  think,"  cried  Lily,  beside  herself,  "when 
I  think  that  Pa  and  Ma  will  be  here  .  .  .  with  tricks 
stolen  from  me !  footy  rotter  that  you  are !" 


292  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Jimmy  understood  that  the  engagement  of  the  New 
Trickers  exasperated  Lily :  a  question  of  outraged  pride, 
of  professional  jealousy.  He  tried  to  explain:  she  had 
already  performed  in  Paris  and  Harrasford  insisted  on 
that.  He,  Jimmy,  wasn't  altogether  the  master.  The  New 
Trickers  were  very  clever,  very  original,  very  new  . 

"And  I'm  only  fit  to  throw  to  the  dogs,  eh  ?"  cried  Lily 
furiously.  "And  that  rot  about  having  performed  in 
Paris.  The  Graces  have  performed  in  Paris  and  they're 
to  be  at  the  Astrarium  and  why  not  I  ?  Because  you're 
my  friend,  perhaps.  Such  a  friend!  When  it  would 
have  been  so  easy  for  you  to  give  me  that  pleasure.  But 
no  one  will  ever  do  anything  to  please  me!  Yes,  stran- 
gers, gentlemen  in  the  front  boxes;  but  not  friends  like 
you !  You  always  bore  me  a  grudge  for  marrying 
Trampy  .  .  .  And  who  knows  what  people  say  of 
me  behind  my  back !  .  .  .  that  I  cut  my  turn  .  .  . 
that  I  do  less  than  I  might.  You  know  what  I  can  do, 
damn  it !  But  it's  work  I  want,  do  you  hear,  work !  I'm 
not  what  you  think !  .  .  .  One  of  those  .  .  .  not 
I !  I'd  rather  chew  glass  than  take  any  of  that !" 

And  Lily  spoke  with  nervous  movements  of  the  shoul- 
der and  fiery  glances  and  she  forced  Jimmy  to  lower  his 
eyes  and  she  told  him  what  she  thought  of  him  straight 
out,  told  him  all  her  heaped-up,  rankling  spite,  told  him 
all  she  had  at  heart,  in  words  round  and  solid  enough  to 
build  a  tower  of  Babel  on ! 

"And  I  would  have  given  my  life,  yes,  given  my  life 
to  perform  here !  However,  it's  done  now,  isn't  it  ?  And 
it  can't  be  undone,"  said  Lily,  more  calmly,  and  two 
tears  sprang  to  her  eyelids.  .  .  .  Then,  while  Jimmy, 
plunged  in  his  own  thoughts,  watched  her  without  speak- 
ing and  listened  to  her  like  a  judge,  "You've  nothing 


INTERMEZZO  293 

to  say  to  me,  eh  ?"  she  continued,  closing  her  trunk  with 
a  thump  of  the  fist.  "Nor  I  either.  Then  help  me  to 
carry  down  my  hamper:  you  haven't  helped  me  to  get 
into  the  Astrarium ;  at  least  you  can  help  me  to  get  out 
of  it.  No?  You  refuse?  And  you  so  generous!"  she 
said,  with  a  scornful  laugh.  "Well,  then,  help  me  take 
it  on  my  shoulders.  No?  Not  even  that?  Then  I  must 
try  by  myself  .  .  .  and  never  mind  if  I  do  get  crushed ! 
That's  all  I  care  for  my  life  now !"  added  Lily,  snapping 
her  fingers. 

"But,  Lily,"  said  Jimmy,  taking  up  the  hamper. 
"You're  going  out  of  your  sense ;  you  know  that  ..." 

Jimmy  could  find  nothing  to  say.  He  was  pained  to  the 
bottom  of  his  heart  .  .  .  for  the  grief  which  he  was 
causing  her.  The  tone  of  feverish  banter  which  Lily  was 
adopting  upset  him  more  than  her  anger  had  done.  He 
felt  himself  filled  with  pity  for  that  poor  little  creature 
standing  at  bay. 

With  a  turn  of  the  hip,  Jimmy  jerked  to  his  shoulder 
the  great  fcasket  trunk  which  contained  all  Lily's  fortune. 
It  was  not  very  heavy:  tights,  spangled  skirts,  faded 
flowers.  And,  in  the  passage  down-stairs,  the  astounded 
stage-doorkeeper  saw  the  famous  bill-topper  submis- 
sively carrying  the  trunk  of  the  bicyclist,  who  walked  in 
front  of  him,  wheeling  her  machine  beside  her. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  fortnight  that  followed  upon  this  meeting  was 
such  a  strenuous  one  for  Jimmy,  with  eighteen  hours  out 
of  the  twenty-four  spent  at  the  Astrarium,  among  the 
day  and  night  gangs ;  his  life  was  such  a  slavery  that  he 
had  hardly  time  to  think  of  Lily.  But  he  did  think  of  her, 
for  all  that.  He  seemed  to  hear  her  still.  Yes,  he  con- 
fessed to  himself,  he  had,  perhaps,  believed  ...  he 
had,  in  fact,  been  told  that  Lily  was  Lily  no  longer  .  .  . 
But  he  had  just  been  admiring  her  magnificent  anger. 
He  had  seen  her  eaten  up  with  ambition,  quivering  from 
head  to  foot,  and  that  brave  face  lifted  up  to  his.  Twenty 
times  over  he  was  on  the  point  of  saying  something  to 
her ;  but  he  must  see  first  .  .  .  Would  she  herself  be 
willing  ?  Even  though  she  had  seemed  resolved  to  do  any- 
thing? 

"Meanwhile,"  thought  Jimmy,  as  on  the  former  occa- 
sion, when  she  was  ill,  in  Berlin,  "how  are  we  to  help 
her  out  of  this  .  .  .  how?" 

And  he  was  caught  in  the  whirlwind  again:  it  was 
Jimmy  here,  Jimmy  there.  He  had  to  be  in  ten  places  at 
once.  Not  that  he  was  manager  or  stage-manager :  his 
was  a  special  case.  Since  his  return  from  America,  Jimmy 
possessed  an  even  more  thorough  knowledge  of  all  the 
machinery  of  the  theater.  He  had  his  memorandum-books 
filled  with  notes,  his  head  crammed  with  new  ideas.  He 
had  a  smattering  of  everything,  a  vast  amount  of  ex- 

294 


INTERMEZZO  295 

perience  picked  up  in  rushing  about  the  world.  After 
his  triumphs  with  "Bridging  the  Abyss,"  the  managers, 
knowing  that  he  had  prepared  something  different,  some- 
thing strange  and  terrible,  without  knowing  exactly  what, 
the  managers  had  bombarded  him  with  offers:  Chicago, 
Berlin,  London.  A  conversation  with  Harrasford,  whom 
the  Astrarium  held  body  and  soul,  had  determined  the 
matter  otherwise:  he  would  open  the  Astrarium  with 
Jimmy  and  remodel  the  theater  from  top  to  bottom  in 
view  of  the  new  trick,  the  most  sensational  that  had  ever 
been  seen.  And  Jimmy  should  make  the  necessary  altera- 
tions, he  should  have  a  free  hand. 

Jimmy  accepted.  To  open  in  a  theater  made  for  him- 
self seemed  preferable  to  Jimmy  to  launching  his  new 
invention  in  a  closed  hall,  such  as  the  London  Hippo- 
drome, for  instance,  which  did  not  provide  the  aperture 
in  the  roof,  the  door  opening  on  to  the  stars,  which  he 
required  to  obtain  his  effect  upon  the  crowd.  And  that 
was  why,  in  the  work  at  the  Astrarium,  everything 
turned  upon  Jimmy.  He  was  responsible  to  both  Har- 
rasford and  himself.  For  that  matter,  he  was  fully  equal 
to  the  interests  at  stake.  Harrasford,  a  great  judge  of 
men,  intrusted  everything  to  Jimmy,  the  sensational  bill- 
topper,  removed  above  all  jealousy ;  and  he  left  it  to  his 
experience  to  construct  the  program.  Harrasford  him- 
self, the  chief  and  master,  rarely  left  London;  he  man- 
aged all  his  theaters  from  his  office,  with  the  'phone  at 
his  ear,  or  else  flew  like  the  wind  in  every  direction,  buy- 
ing a  theater  here,  picking  up  a  star  there,  on  the  wing. 
It  was  not  until  the  third  week  that  he  came  to  see  for 
himself  how  the  work  was  doing  and  to  discuss  the 
accounts.  His  broad  back  was  seen,  followed  by  Jimmy, 
to  plunge  down  the  plastery  corridors,  to  pass  under  the 


296  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

scaffoldings.  He  looked  like  a  conqueror,  tracing  with 
his  finger  the  plan  of  the  palace  that  was  to  rise  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  destroyed  city;  or  else  he  would  point  out 
things  with  a  jerk  of  the  chin: 

"The  proscenium  pushed  forward  to  here,  eh,  Jimmy  ? 
A  cluster  of  electric  lights  here.  Another  there.  And 
what  about  your  trick,  Jimmy  ?" 

"You  must  imagine  the  house  in  darkness,"  said 
Jimmy,  "and  blue  and  green  rays  falling  on  the  stage 
from  above.  Through  the  blue,  we  send  a  great  dazzling 
beam,  from  over  there,  lighting  up  every  inch  of  the 
house,  a  terrific  light,  the  light  of  the  Last  Judgment.  .  .  ." 

"Good !"  said  Harrasford.  "We  want  two  or  three  fits 
of  hysterics  at  the  opening,  real  ones,  not  hired  at  two 
bob  a  night,"  he  added,  with  a  wink.  "They're  working, 
up  there,"  he  continued,  a  piece  of  old  plastering  falling 
on  his  shoulder,  as  they  crossed  the  floor  of  the  house, 
denuded  of  its  seats. 

"It's  the  opening  in  the  roof,"  said  Jimmy.  "I  should 
have  liked  to  show  you  .  .  .  the  staircase  is  blocked 
with  scaffoldings  .  .  . " 

But  Harrasford,  at  the  risk  of  breaking  his  neck,  had 
already  grasped  the  rungs  of  a  provisional  ladder,  made 
of  spokes  stuck  through  one  of  the  four  beams  which 
rose  from  the  floor  to  the  ceiling  and  supported  it,  while 
the  whole  of  the  space  between  them  was  being  opened. 
The  architect  was  there  when  Harrasford  came  out  on 
the  roof.  He  showed  him  four  piers  of  strong  masonry 
which  were  being  built  against  the  outer  walls,  explained 
that  two  T  irons  of  considerable  strength  would  rest  with 
their  ends  on  the  piers  and  run  across  the  roofing  from 
wall  to  wall.  Two  other  irons,  also  parallel,  but  running 
lengthwise,  would  be  bolted  to  the  first  two.  This  ar- 


297 

rangement  would  make  a  horizontal  frame  of  twenty  by 
thirty  feet.  They  would  then  remove  the  beams  which 
supported  the  roof  during  the  operations.  When  the 
plastering  was  finished  and  the  gilding  applied,  this 
would  form,  as  seen  from  below,  a  handsome  frame  to 
the  sky.  The  architect  also  explained  how  the  truncated 
roof  would  be  secured  to  the  frame,  forming  a  whole 
as  firm  as  a  rock,  and  how  a  light  iron  sash,  completely 
glazed,  could  be  drawn  along  the  two  transverse  T  irons, 
thus  opening  or  closing  the  hall  as  desired. 

"The  whole  thing's  worked  from  below  by  electricity," 
said  Jimmy. 

"How  long  will  it  take  ?"  asked  Harrasford. 

"It's  all  ready.  It's  only  got  to  be  fixed  up,"  said  the 
architect. 

"And  how  much?  Give  me  the  detailed  account  to- 
night, at  the  station.  I'll  study  it  on  my  way  to  Berlin." 
And,  turning  to  the  workmen,  "Faites  vite!  Depeches!" 

They  were  the  only  words  of  French  he  knew,  a  vo- 
cabulary no  more  extensive  than  Lily's,  but  of  a  different 
kind. 

"And  the  lights?"  asked  Harrasford,  before  he  went 
down  again. 

"Here,  there,"  said  Jimmy,  "on  steel  rods,  connected 
by  electric  wires." 

"That'll  dish  the  Berlin  Winter  Garden,  with  its  stars 
set  in  black  velvet,"  said  Harrasford. 

And  he  followed  Jimmy  toward  the  stage  wall,  which 
stood  out  above  the  roof  of  the  auditorium.  Here  some 
other  workmen  were  cutting  a  doorway. 

"Let's  go  and  see  the  floor  now." 

And  Harrasford  plunged  through  the  door,  fol- 
lowed by  Jimmy.  They  crossed  the  fly-galleries  and 


298  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

made  for  the  blocked  staircases.  Before  they  went  down, 
Jimmy  called  his  attention  to  a  pulley  which  was  being 
fixed  to  the  ceiling  and  which  was  to  carry  a  rope  with  a 
stirrup  for  the  performer's  foot,  to  enable  him  to  reach 
the  stage  in  a  few  seconds,  after  doing  the  trick. 

"Very  good,"  said  Harrasford. 

In  half  an  hour,  he  had  visited  everything:  the  roof, 
the  flies,  the  cellar,  the  auditorium,  the  front  entrance. 
Workmen  were  hurrying  everywhere.  Harrasford  en- 
couraged them  with  a  slap  on  the  shoulder : 

"Depcchez!  Faites  vite!" 

They  were  working  at  everything  at  once,  from  the 
new  installation  of  electric  light  and  the  steam-heating 
apparatus,  in  the  basement,  to  the  emergency  exits  and 
the  main  lobby.  Upholsterers  were  taking  measurements 
in  the  front  boxes.  The  sound  of  the  hammer  rang 
out  from  top  to  bottom,  amid  a  cloud  of  dust;  men 
climbed  the  scaffoldings,  hoisted  up  things ;  and  the  sight 
of  all  this  activity  gave  the  impression  of  a  plan  thought 
out  in  advance,  executed  with  great  certainty,  but  incom- 
prehensible to  any  one  not  in  the  secret.  There  could  be 
no  doubt  but  that  the  spectacle  which  was  being  prepared 
would  be  of  a  sensational  character:  even  the  back-wall 
of  the  stage,  which  was  empty  at  that  moment,  had  been 
altered.  By  clearing  away  a  few  dressing-rooms,  they 
had  raised  the  floor  and  ceiling  of  the  huge  property-en- 
trance. It  had  been  closed  up  at  the  back  and  fitted  with 
a  sliding  door  in  front. 

"The  bird's  cage,"  said  Jimmy,  with  a  smile. 

"And  how  does  he  get  out  ?"  asked  Harrasford. 

"Windlasses  here  ...  a  rope  up  above  .  .  . 
hooks,"  said  Jimmy. 

"And  when  will  it  be  fixed  ?" 


INTERMEZZO  299 

"Finished  next  week,  everything's  ready,  the  trials 
have  been  made.  It  will  only  need  a  little  practice,  here, 
on  the  spot,  calculating  the  effort,  getting  used  to  the 
distance." 

"House  packed  for  six  months!"  said  the  manager. 
"Here's  a  cigar  to  your  success,  Jimmy !  Come  and  let's 
have  a  drink  at  the  bar;  we'll  settle  the  program  over 
there." 

A  moment  later,  the  two  entered  the  bar  where,  a  fort- 
night earlier,  Lily  had  handed  round  the  hat  a  second 
time  for  old  Martello  and  his  Bambinis  and  where  the 
artistes,  who  had  already  dispersed  toward  the  four  cor- 
ners of  Europe,  had  raised  their  glasses  to  the  success  of 
the  Astrarium.  And  there,  in  the  little  back  room,  which 
was  deserted  by  the  artistes,  now  that  the  theater  was 
closed,  but  which  would  soon  again  be  the  intersecting 
point  of  so  many  vagabond  existences  .  .  .  where 
the  nigger  cake-walker  from  Chicago  would  play  poker 
with  the  equilibrist  from  Japan  .  .  .  where  the  profs 
and  the  bosses  would  exchange  complaints  about  the 
strictness  of  the  regulations  concerning  the  work  of  ap- 
prentices .  .  .  where  little  girls,  worth  their  weight 
in  gold,  would  come,  coyly,  encompassed  by  Pas  and  Mas, 
but  with  glances  askance  at  flight ;  in  that  corner  where 
funny  men  would  swallow  mixed  drinks  and  talk  through 
their  noses ;  there,  under  the  frames  containing  row  upon 
row  of  signed  photographs  of  artistes :  human  pyramids, 
girls  in  a  knot,  foaming  muslins,  Apollos  and  Venuses 
all  muscles ;  there,  in  Pros'  Corner,  Harrasford,  the  man 
for  whom  all  those  people  toiled  and  moiled,  head  down 
or  feet  in  the  air,  the  man  from  whom  one  thousand  per- 
sons drew  salaries  night  after  night,  Harrasford  lit 
his  cigar  and  sat  down  at  a  table  with  Jimmy,  over  a 


300  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

bottle  of  beer,  and,  forthwith,  pencil  and  note-book  in 
hand: 

"Let's  see  the  program." 

Jimmy,  on  his  side,  took  a  written  list  from  his  pocket 
and  laid  it  on  the  table. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  select  turns  which  they 
were  about  to  discuss  had  long  been  engaged  for  Harras- 
ford's  different  music-halls,  some  of  them  two  or  three 
years  ahead,  as  often  happens  in  the  case  of  the  great 
bill-toppers,  and  the  question  was  to  choose  among  the 
best,  so  as  to  insure  the  triumph  of  the  opening  night. 
For  Harrasford,  who  had  as  yet  appointed  no  one  as 
manager  or  stage-manager,  the  thing  was  to  settle  a  pro- 
gram which  would  discourage  any  attempt  at  competi- 
tion, to  have  none  appearing  except  stars,  without  count- 
ing those  whom  he  held  in  reserve  for  the  following 
month,  before  distributing  them  over  his  variety-theaters 
in  England,  or,  later,  to  any  part  of  Europe,  in  the  "Great 
Powers  Tour"  which  he  proposed  to  create  and  of  which 
the  Astrarium  would  be  a  sort  of  "commodore"  music- 
hall,  or  headquarters.  Jimmy  only  gave  his  opinion,  after 
which  Harrasford  would  decide. 

Harrasford's  dream  was  a  model  music-hall,  something, 
in  its  own  way,  like  the  Grand  Opera  in  Paris :  a  palatial 
edifice,  in  a  new  style  of  architecture,  with  friezes  dis- 
playing bodies  in  contortion,  caryatids,  cast  from  life, 
supporting  the  springers  of  the  arches,  mixed  groups 
of  loins  and  chests  with  swelling  muscles,  under  the 
electric  lights,  and,  in  the  lobbies,  a  lavish  display  of 
African  onyx,  Scotch  granite  and  Russian  porphyry.  The 
crowd  would  pass  in  between  Venus  and  Apollo,  holding 
flowers  and  lights ;  and  there  would  be  music  everywhere ; 
gaiety,  noise,  red  and  gold  everywhere;  all  cares  would 


INTERMEZZO  301 

be  laid  aside  and  forgotten  on  entering;  it  would  be  a 
hall  containing  every  modern  convenience,  like  the  Iro- 
quois  at  Buffalo  or  a  'Frisco  sky-scraper:  newspapers, 
cafe,  bars,  smoking-room,  barbers'  saloon,  telegraph-of- 
fice, telephone-office,  messenger-boys,  ticket-office,  private 
rooms  in  which  phonographs  would  shout  out  the  latest 
news  illustrated  with  telesteriography,  from  eight  o'clock 
till  midnight.  The  idea  was  to  create,  thirty  years  ahead 
of  its  time,  the  great  popular  music-hall,  with  its  ball- 
rooms, as  at  Blackpool,  its  side-shows,  a  palm-garden, 
a  roof -garden;  to  draw  to  the  theater  those  who,  on 
getting  up  from  dinner,  go  to  the  cafe  and  stay  there ;  to 
give  them  an  atmosphere  of  mirth  and  jollity,  of  comfort- 
ing lights,  a  sort  of  night  forum,  of  People's  Palace,  with, 
in  the  middle,  in  the  sumptuous  hall,  facing  the  furnace 
that  was  the  stage,  a  long  thrill  of  three  hours'  duration. 

And  he  would  realize  it  next  year,  but  he  ,was  in  a 
hurry  to  open  now,  to  plant  his  flag  of  victory : 

"Faitesvite!  Depechez!" 

Dare  Devil  had  won  the  place  for  him  and  Jimmy  was 
bringing  him  the  sensational  attraction,  the  inspired  god- 
send which  would  pack  the  Astrarium  for  six  months 
and  fill  its  till  and  spread  its  name  far  and  wide  over 
Europe. 

Harrasford  thought  of  this  with  a  puff  at  his  cigar, 
after  glancing  at  the  photographs  on  the  wall,  and  then, 
suddenly : 

"Let's  see  the  program." 

"Nothing  but  bill-toppers,"  said  Jimmy.  "Picked 
turns  from  the  first  to  the  last  .  .  ." 

"Which  will  be  you,"  Harrasford  broke  in. 

"Yes    ...     I     ...     or  somebody  else    .    .     ." 

"What  do  you  mean,  somebody  else?" 


302  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"Perhaps,"  said  Jimmy,  "to  heighten  the  effect  of  my 
turn  .  .  .  for  reasons  which  I'll  explain  to  you  .  .  . 
perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  have  a  woman  .  .  .  bet- 
ter for  the  success  of  the  attraction !"  he  hastened  to  add, 
at  an  astonished  gesture  of  Harrasford's. 

"And     .     .     .     are  you  sure  ?"  asked  the  other. 

"I  think  so,"  said  Jimmy. 

"The  program  first,"  said  Harrasford,  returning  to  his 
notes. 

"We  open  with  a  gallery  in  marble  and  gold,  some- 
thing showy  and  quaint,  in  the  Potsdam  style,  with  a 
negress  inside." 

"I  know.  Light  of  Asia,  eh?  The  armless  Chinese 
girl  whom  I  discovered  at  Poplar.  .  .  .  Music  of 
cymbals  and  triangles,  eh?" 

"No,"  said  Jimmy.  "I  have  something  better  .  .  . 
more  aesthetic,  less  cruel  ...  a  Soudanese  woman 
from  Chicago.  She  walks  on  to  the  stage  in  a  low-necked 
dress  ...  a  magnificent  woman  ...  a  creamy 
complexion,  with  a  touch  of  pink  .  .  .  and  golden 
hair  .  .  ." 

"You  said  a  negress,"  interrupted  Harrasford. 

"Wait  ...  a  splendid  voice  .  .  .  classical 
music  .  .  .  then  a  wild  African  melody.  .  .  . 
She  feels  a  flutter  of  homesickness ;  the  perspiration 
streams  down  her  face;  she  presses  the  sponge  soaked 
in  water,  hidden  beneath  her  wig, — and  the  enamel,  the 
white  of  the  shoulders,  the  pink  cheeks  all  trickle  away 
and,  finally  she  appears  black  as  ebony,  and,  to  the  growl 
of  the  kettle-drums,  does  a  disheveled  dance,  kicking  up 
her  legs  like  a  puppet  on  a  string  .  .  .  Patti-Patty 

.  .  .  talent  and  absurdity  mixed  ...  a  crazy 
toy  .  .  .  movement  and  noise,  while  the  hall  fills." 


INTERMEZZO  803 

"Next?"  asked  Harrasford. 

"Next,  without  any  interval,"  continued  Jimmy,  "di- 
rectly after  that  performance  by  the  court  fool  before  his 
majesty  the  audience,  the  curtain  rises  upon  a  park  .  .  . 
and  the  New  Trickers  chasing  one  another  among  the 
trees." 

"The  New  Trickers!"  said  Harrasford.  "Bicyclists: 
that's  very  stale.  And,  besides,  what  about  you  ?" 

"Has  one  ever,"  asked  Jimmy,  "seen  a  music-hall  give 
two  similar  special  turns,  two  bicycle  turns,  for  instance, 
in  the  same  show?" 

"Absurd!"  said  Harrasford.    "Explain  yourself." 

"It's  to  differentiate  between  my  invention  and  trick- 
riding  from  the  very  first,"  replied  Jimmy,  "to  show,  once 
and  for  all,  that  mine  has  nothing  in  common  with  the 
ordinary  turns  you  see  on  the  stage :  'Bridging  the  Abyss' 
or  'Looping  the  Loop.'  " 

"You  may  be  right,"  said  Harrasford,  "it  will  prevent 
confusion;  yours  is  purely  scientific.  And  the  New 
Trickers :  tights  ?  Bloomers  ?" 

"Skirts,  all  in  white,  Warwick  style,"  said  Jimmy.  "A 
school-girls'  spree:  see-saw  on  the  bike  .  .  .  somer- 
saults over  the  benches  .  .  waltzes,  lively  tunes:  an 
impression  of  gaiety  and  happiness.  The  star  is  a  statue  on 
a  pedestal  in  the  park.  The  others  throw  flowers  to  her. 
She  wakes ;  steps  down :  'Hullo,  a  bike !'  And  then  a  spe- 
cial tune  for  the  star  and  a  waltz  on  the  back-wheel,  amid 
the  admiring  circle  of  school-girls." 

"All  right,"  said  Harrasford.  "And  what's  the  price 
of  the  New  Trickers?" 

"So  much." 

And  he  jotted  it  down  in  his  note-book,  near  the  prices 
of  Dare  Devil  and  Cataplasm. 


304  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

Jimmy  also  took  notes,  mentioned  the  names  of  the 
great  serio,  the  great  comic  singer,  with  their  figures : 

"So  much." 

"They  earn  their  money  pretty  easily,  those  two!" 
grunted  Harrasford.  "But  I've  got  to  submit  to  it,  I 
suppose.  Next  ?" 

Jimmy  only  described  the  spectacular  turns.  Harras- 
ford listened,  saw  it  in  his  head :  a  corner  of  untamed  na- 
ture, a  valley  in  the  mountains,  blue  distances,  sunshine 
in  the  foreground.  The  Three  Graces  arrive  all  out  of 
breath. 

"You  understand,"  said  Jimmy,  "they  are  supposed  to 
have  been  chasing  the  deer  or  hunting  butterflies.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Fuchs  will  have  made  them  do  their 
Sandow,  before  going  on,  to  bring  the  blood  to  their 
cheeks;  he's  full  of  ideas,  is  Mr.  Fuchs.  On  arriving, 
a  moment's  rest,  an  adorable  group  in  all  the  splendor 
of  the  nude  .  .  .  sweet,  solemn  music  .  .  .  and 
then  a  glorious  performance,  a  sort  of  human  cluster 
hanging  from  the  trapezes,  something  healthy  and  ro- 
bust." 

"All  right,"  said  Harrasford,  putting  a  cross  in  his 
note-book  opposite  the  Three  Graces.  "And  next  ?" 

With  Harrasford  it  was  always  "And  next?"  like  a 
man  who  never  has  more  than  just  so  many  minutes  to 
spare,  because  his  train's  waiting. 

It  was  a  curious  sight  to  see  the  two  talking  together 
in  low  voices,  with  an  occasional  glance  at  the  door 
when  some  indiscreet  person  looked  in.  They  might  have 
been  taken  for  a  pair  of  conspirators  plotting  a  move; 
no  one  would  ever  have  suspected  that  they  were  com- 
posing a  performance,  unique  of  its  sort,  which  would  be 
famous  to-morrow.  Everything  was  provided  for: 


scenery,  music,  the  color  of  the  dresses,  effects  of  light, 
the  alternate  doses  of  laughter  or  grace  or  terror  to  be 
served  up  to  the  audience ;  everything  was  discussed  then 
and  there,  in  all  its  details,  down  to  those  two  sketch- 
comedians,  with  faces  streaked  red  and  white,  against  a 
back-drop  representing  an  old  English  street,  two  drunken 
sports,  with  hats  mashed  in,  coats  turned  inside  out,  ten 
minutes  of  mad  tricks  and  inhuman  cries;  for  the  audi- 
ence must  have  its  pittance  of  the  grotesque  as  well. 

There  was  a  herd  of  comic  elephants,  five  enormous 
animals  in  a  Hindoo  setting ;  and  no  master  on  the  stage, 
no  boss,  no  prof :  they  all  obeyed  a  whistle  blown  in  the 
wings.  And,  conducting  the  orchestra  with  an  air  of  un- 
speakable gravity,  a  monkey,  Mozart  II.,  a  caricature  of 
an  infant  prodigy,  made  the  huge  brutes  perform  their 
evolutions,  to  the  Soldiers'  Chorus  from  Faust.  Then, 
in  his  enthusiasm,  Mozart  sent  his  desk  flying  into  the 
air,  followed  by  his  coat,  his  shoes,  his  conductor's  baton, 
and  ended  by  seizing  his  tail  in  his  hand  and  beating 
time  with  that. 

"That  dishes  Orpheus  and  Mad-darewski,"  said  Har- 
rasford.  "And  next  ?" 

The  entr'acte  came  next,  with  portraits  and  biographies 
of  the  artistes  distributed  among  the  audience. 

"Yes,  yes,"  said  Harrasford,  laughing.  "Old  English 
families  .  .  .  clergymen's  daughters  .  .  ." 

"Learned  all  that  with  their  governesses,  as  a  surprise 
for  their  Pa  and  Ma !"  continued  Jimmy.  "Mozart  II.,  a 
favorite  of  the  king  of  Lahore ;  Patti-Patty,  a  descendant 
of  the  Queen  of  Sheba:  we've  got  to  do  it.  There's  no 
getting  away  from  it." 

"We  must  hide  the  bruises,"  said  Harrasford.  "And 
next?" 


306  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"Next,  I  hope  to  have  the  Bambinis:  ten  minutes  of 
rosy  mirth ;  real  biographical  babies,  born  with  that  in 
their  blood,  brother  and  sister,  two  marvels.  I  shall  ob- 
tain permission  for  them  to  appear,  though  they're  under 
the  age ;  the  old  father  is  dying,  the  famous  Martello." 

"We  must  engage  them  for  my  tour,"  said  Harras- 
ford. 

"If  the  old  man  doesn't  die  first ;  in  that  case,  there's 
a  brother  who  will  come  and  claim  them,  it  seems. 
They're  a  fortune,  the  two  Bambinis,  to  whomever  secures 
them." 

"One  dress-coat  more  on  the  stage,"  said  Harrasford. 
"And  next?" 

"Topsy  Turvy  Tom." 

"Oh,  yes,  I  know!"  said  Harrasford,  laughing.  "The 
fellow  who  used  to  wear  leaden  armlets  to  harden  his 
muscles  and  smash  Clifton's  jaw." 

"That's  the  one,"  said  Jimmy,  laughing  in  his  turn.  "A 
threat  of  Clifton's,  who  said  that  he  would  'make  him 
dance  the  hornpipe  on  his  hands,  damn  it !'  suggested  the 
idea  of  a  turn  to  him,  so  they  say.  He  set  to  work  with 
superhuman  energy — and  now  he  is  a  bill-topper.  .  .  ." 

"Well  done!"  cried  Harrasford,  banging  his  fist  on 
the  table.  "There's  no  country  but  old  England  can  turn 
out  bulldogs  like  that,  lads  who  jump  from  the  gutter 
to  the  top  of  the  bill !  That's  what  I  call  a  man !  And 
what's  his  turn  like  ?" 

"A  scene  of  his  own :  the  front  of  a  palace.  A  pink 
marble  figure,  naked  down  to  the  waist,  supports  a  huge 
cornice.  A  thunder  of  big  drums,  a  flash  of  lime-light 
and  the  palace  splits  from  top  to  bottom.  The  figure 
staggers,  falls  on  its  hands  and  gives  a  stupendous  aero- 


INTERMEZZO  307 

batic  performance:  somersaults  on  the  hands;  waltzing; 
treading  the  ball:  the  'horn-pipe,  damn  it!'  And  then 
Tom  stands  on  his  feet,  all  in  shadow.  A  powerful  ray 
of  light  is  thrown  upon  him,  and  you  see  the  muscles  of 
the  abdomen  slowly  moving,  the  pectoral  muscles  quiver- 
ing, the  deltoids  leaping  and  starting,  the  biceps  swelling ; 
and,  when  he  turns  round,  the  rhomboids  hollowing  out, 
the  muscles  of  the  back  rolling :  the  triumph  of  the  human 
machine  .  .  .  and  of  Tom." 

"And  of  will,"  said  Harrasford.    "How  much  ?" 

"So  much." 

"It's  worth  it.    And  next?" 

"Roofers,  high-kickers:  the  Merry  Wives.  We  begin 
with  dancing  and  end  with  dancing.  The  puppets  make 
their  bow  to  the  public  before  being  put  away  in  their 
boxes  .  .  .  the  curtain  falls  .  .  .  and  good  night !" 

"And. then  you  come!" 

"Then  I  come,"  said  Jimmy.    "Or  she." 

"Your  invention,"  said  Harrasford  seriously,  "is  not  a 
music-hall  entertainment.  It  is,  undoubtedly,  the  greatest 
of  all  scientific  toys,  a  marvel  of  modern  ingenuity.  Do 
you  really  want  a  pair  of  tights  on  the  top  of  that  ?  And, 
first  of  all,  where  will  you  find  the  woman  who  will  dare  ?" 

"That's  the  question,  obviously,"  admitted  Jimmy. 

Not  that  Jimmy  must  have  been  in  love  with  Lily,  to 
think  of  her!  It  had  first  just  passed  through  his  head, 
no  more.  But,  on  reflecting,  it  had  appeared  to  him  that, 
in  the  theater,  the  beauty  of  a  Lily  would  add  greatly  to 
the  success  of  his  attraction.  To  work  his  invention  in 
public  was  different  from  experimenting  with  it  in  his 
shed  in  London.  It  was  leaving  the  laboratory  to  take 
its  place  in  life;  and  it  would  be  a  triumph  to  see  the 


308  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

daring  trick  succeed,  every  day,  at  the  fixed  hour,  within 
a  restricted  compass;  to  see  it  go  through  the  opening 
above;  to  see  that  machine  worked  by  a  young  girl  in 
whom  one  would  have  suspected  neither  the  strength 
nor  the  nerve:  it  would  make  the  public  infer  the  ex- 
cellence of  the  engine.  Now  Jimmy  was  possessed,  above 
all,  of  scientific  enthusiasm.  His  machine  before  every- 
thing; not  his  personal  triumph,  his  machine.  He 
dreamed  of  giving  that  added  grace  to  his  diagrams; 
and  he  considered  that  there  was  no  disadvantage  in 
allowing  science  to  be  introduced  by  youth  and  beauty. 
Moreover,  Jimmy  was  a  little  heavy  for  an  apparatus  in 
which  he  had  even  suppressed  the  motor,  in  order  to 
make  it  more  easily  manageable  ...  a  lighter  body 
would  perhaps  be  better  .  .  .  Lily,  Lily  was  the 
ideal  operator;  but  was  she  capable  of  it?  Jimmy  had 
confidence  in  her.  Jimmy,  certainly,  did  not  allow  senti- 
ment to  mix  in  his  affairs;  there  was  the  weight  of  his 
responsibility  to  consider.  But  then  there  was  also  his 
meeting  with  Lily  in  the  dressing-room  passage.  And  he 
had  understood  her  mental  agony.  He  had  seen  the 
gleam  in  her  eyes  and  so  great  a  display  of  energy  in  her 
face  that  Jimmy  had  resolved  to  try  her;  and  he  would 
judge  her  much  better  by  the  way  in  which  she  should 
face  death. 

That  is  what  Jimmy  explained  to  the  manager,  leaving 
a  good  deal  untold,  of  course,  and  Harrasford  retired  be- 
hind the  smoke  of  his  cigar,  listened,  approved. 

"It's  your  affair,  when  all  is  said  and  done.  All  you 
want  is  success,  I  suppose?  And  will  you  arrange  with 
her  .  .  .  with  your  .  .  .  what  did  you  say  her 
name  was  ?" 


INTERMEZZO  309 

"Lily." 

"There  are  so  many  Lilies;  and,  if  somebody  has  to 
break  his  or  her  back,  I  had  rather  it  was  a  Lily,  one  out 
of  the  bunch,  than  you." 

Lily,  meanwhile,  was  loitering  outside.  Harrasford 
and  Jimmy  had  no  notion  that  the  girl  about  whom  they 
were  talking  was  quite  close  to  them,  thinking  of  them. 
Lily  had  heard  an  artiste  say  that  Harrasford  was  visit- 
ing the  Astrarium.  She  had  come  in  all  haste,  im- 
pelled by  some  vague  hope.  Chance  would  have  it  that 
she  was  still  in  Paris.  Everything,  besides,  seemed  to 
be  keeping  her  there :  an  agent,  the  day  after  her  inter- 
view with  Jimmy,  had  advised  her  to  stay  a  few  days 
longer;  there  might  be  something  important  for  her. 
Lily  could  not  understand  in  what  way;  however,  she 
had  stayed,  though  she  was  almost  without  means  of 
support.  She  began  by  trying  to  sell  her  jewels,  the 
fifty-pound  diamond,  among  others,  which  that  lord  had 
given  her  in  England :  the  jeweler  handed  it  back  to  her, 
saying  that  it  might  be  worth  eight  francs !  That  meant 
destitution.  And  yet  hope  always  returned  to  her  in  one 
way  or  another.  She  had  even  received  three  blue  bank- 
notes, three  hundred  francs,  in  an  envelope !  Her  fortnight 
at  the  Bijou !  No  doubt  about  it,  they  were  paying  the 
artistes'  salaries;  perhaps  the  Federation  had  taken  the 
matter  up?  Three  hundred  francs;  not  enough  to  pay 
Glass-Eye  or  to  give  to  Jimmy,  but  just  sufficient  to  settle 
her  small  debts,  buy  some  new  dresses  and  go  to  London 
to  play  the  darky  at  Earl's  Court.  Oh,  what  a  ridiculous 
come-down!  And  so,  when  she  learned  that  Harrasford 
was  at  the  Astrarium,  she  took  her  courage  in  both  hands : 
she  would  see  Harrasford.  She  would  try  the  fascina- 


310  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

tion  of  her  smile  upon  him.  She  would  be  settled  at 
once  and  for  ever.  .  .  .  When  she  thought  of  the 
New  Trickers,  her  blood  seemed  to  stand  still  in  her 
veins  :  the  New  Trickers  at  the  Astrarium !  And  Jimmy, 
the  mean  cur,  not  to  have  got  her  that  shop,  when  she 
had  such  a  splendid  idea :  Lady  Godiva  on  a  bike !  And 
a  scene  of  her  own:  the  front  of  Peeping  Tom's  club, 
with  all  the  boys  at  the  windows ! 

Just  then,  Harrasford  came  out  of  the  bar.  She  hur- 
ried up  to  him  and  introduced  herself : 

"Miss  Lily." 

"Which  one  ?"  said  Harrasford.  "Excuse  me ;  no  time 
now.  See  Jimmy,  will  you  ?" 

And  he  plunged  into  a  cab  and  shouted  an  address  to 
his  driver. 

Lily  stood  stupefied,  as  she- watched  the  cab  disappear. 
This  time  it  was  finished,  quite  finished.  .  .  .  She 
gave  a  last  glance  at  the  Astrarium  and  sighed.  .  .  . 

"Lily!"  It  was  Jimmy  coming  out  and  crossing  the 
street.  "Hullo,  Lily !" 

She  did  not  reply. 

"Listen,  Lily,"  said  Jimmy,  gently  and  gravely.  "You 
wanted  to  get  there  the  other  day,  didn't  you  ?  You  told 
me  you  would  do  anything  for  that." 

"To  take  the  place  of  the  New  Trickers,  yes!"  ex- 
claimed Lily.  "I'd  have  risked  my  life !" 

"The  New  Trickers  are  there,"  said  Jimmy,  "and  are 
going  to  remain.  Listen  to  me,  what  I  have  to  propose 
to  you  is  very  serious :  it's  something  else." 

"What  else  ?  You  know  that's  all  I'm  good  for  ... 
to  go  round  and  round  .  .  .  you  know  it  quite  well !" 
cried  Lily,  her  face  drawn  with  impotent  anger. 


INTERMEZZO  311 

"I  know  what  you  can  do.  Look  here:  would  you  like 
to  be  above  the  New  Trickers?  Would  you  like  to  top 
the  bill  ?  Are  you  ready  to  do  everything  for  that  ?" 

"May  God  forgive  you  for  mocking  at  me !" 

"Will  you  top  the  bill?"  asked  Jimmy  again,  in  an  ac- 
cent that  sent  a  thrill  down  her  back.  "Answer  me :  yes 
or  no?" 

"Yes,"  cried  Lily.    "My  life,  everything,  damn  it!" 


AMONG  THE  STARS 


Jimmy  was  greatly  excited  when  Lily  had  given  him 
her  answer  and  he  led  her  to  the  Astrarium.  To  under- 
stand his  feelings  fully,  one  would  have  to  know  his  life 
since  the  evening  when,  at  Whitcomb  Mansions,  he  had 
looked  Lily  in  the  face  and  told  her  no.  He  realized 
then,  from  the  emotion  which  he  experienced,  how  great 
a  place  Lily  had  filled  in  his  heart,  the  little  passenger 
from  New  York  to  Liverpool ;  the  girl  who  came  to  see 
him  in  his  shop  in  Gresse  Street;  the  Lily  whom  he 
dreamed  of  "helping  out  of  that"  when  he  saw  her 
on  the  stage,  from  up  in  the  fly-galleries ;  the  one  whom 
he  had  tried  to  take  away  from  Trampy;  the  poor  sick 
girl  in  Berlin;  those  Lilies  whom  he  felt  moving  in- 
side him,  around  him,  like  a  breath  of  April;  all  those 
Lilies,  he  had  broken  with  them  all !  Oh,  it  was  hard ! 
Lily  should  never,  never  know  what  courage  he  had 
needed  to  keep  silent,  he,  the  man  she  thought  so  cold, 
nor  what  a  tempest  .  .  .  oh,  if  she  could  only  have 
seen  into  him !  And  then  ...  he  had  not  met  her 
again.  .  .  . 

He,  after  his  engagement  at  the  Hippodrome,  went  off 
to  America;  Lily  traveled  on  her  part.  Also,  he  was  a 
prey  to  his  fixed  idea,  his  great  project,  always:  his  am- 
bition increased,  the  same  longing  for  success  which,  for- 
merly, in  Gresse  Street,  had  made  him  spend  nights  in 

312 


AMONG    THE    STARS  313 

study  after  days  of  toil,  at  the  time  when,  under  Lily's  in- 
fluence, his  roaming  thoughts  built  castles  in  the  air,  when 
he  felt  awakening  within  himself  his  racial  instinct  as  an 
heroic  seeker  after  profitable  adventures. 

And  his  ambition  took  great  strides  forward,  was  not 
limited,  as  in  Clifton's  case,  to  upsetting  the  fat  freaks 
or  training  New  Zealanders  to  spin  round  and  round. 
He  dreamed  of  a  useful  life,  based  upon  his  own  efforts. 
He  wished  to  found  his  future  upon  a  discovery  of  his 
own,  which  had  long  haunted  him  and  which  had 
ripened  in  Berlin,  between  his  flights  in  "Bridging  the 
Abyss,"  a  thing  at  which  he  worked  incessantly  in  Whit- 
comb  Mansions;  and,  this  time,  the  stage  prowlers 
should  not  steal  his  idea.  To  begin  with,  apart  from 
a  few  pieces  of  technical  advice  which  he  received  from 
a  friend  of  his,  an  engineer,  nobody  knew  about  it; 
and  Jimmy  felt  sure  that,  even  when  the  apparatus  was 
at  work,  he  would  not  fall  a  victim  to  the  confraternity 
who,  ever  on  the  watch  for  new  tricks,  study  them, 
judge  of  the  weak  points,  copy  whatever  suits  them, 
including  scenery  and  music,  and,  sometimes,  succeed 
in  earning  more  money  than  the  inventor  himself;  he 
would  have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  Trampies,  the  pi- 
rates, the  plagiarists,  those  plagues  of  the  profession. 
Certainly,  there  were  great  bill-toppers,  creators  of  sen- 
sations who  discovered  new  things — terrifying  feats  of 
gyroscopic  balancing,  or  flights  through  space,  based 
upon  principles  of  ballistics,  assisted  by  the  spiral  spring 
— daring  risk-alls,  nerve-shakers,  purveyors  of  thrills, 
turning  to  intelligent  account  the  seductive  power  which 
dangerous  feats  exercise  upon  the  public.  Jimmy  knew 
all  about  that.  He  was  not  the  only  one ;  but,  this  time, 
it  was  a  question  of  a  scientific  application  which  would, 


314.  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

beyond  a  doubt,  place  him  at  the  head  of  that  pick  of  the 
music-hall.  It  would  be  pure  science  and  patient  calcu- 
lation :  an  algebraical  hippogriff,  with  pluck  in  the  saddle. 

Jimmy's  plans  resulted  from  intuition  rather  than  real 
knowledge;  but  learning  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  cre- 
ative spirit.  Now  Jimmy,  although  he  was  unaware  of 
it,  possessed  the  genius  that  invents;  and  his  compara- 
tive ignorance  did  him  no  great  harm :  his  imagination, 
unhampered  by  theories,  was  all  the  freer  for  it.  Jimmy 
had  the  higher  instinct  of  the  born  machinist,  who  is  con- 
tent to  use  a  bit  of  string  where  a  school-bred  engineer 
will  cram  every  manner  of  gear,  chains,  pulleys  and  wind- 
lasses. It  is  true  that  he  was  assisted  in  his  research  by 
many  experiments  already  tried  elsewhere;  but  he 
dreamed  of  something  different  and,  in  the  calm  of  Whit- 
comb  Mansions,  had  studied  without  respite. 

"Pooh !"  he  reflected.  "All  those  sails,  all  that  weight ! 
Boxes  heaped  one  on  the  top  of  the  other — cubes  to  catch 
the  air — a  man  sitting  inert  in  a  basket,  with  his  hand 
on  a  lever  and  a  crank :  it's  as  though  one  tried  to  make 
a  stuffed  bird  fly !  And  what  becomes  of  the  man  in  all 
that :  the  back  push,  the  daring  stroke  ?  The  man  has  got 
to  be  the  backbone  of  the  machine,  with  his  quick  balan- 
cings, his  bendings,  which  are  worth  more  than  any 
wheelwork." 

And,  always,  his  inventive  imagination  built  on  with- 
out respite,  pulled  down,  built  up  again. 

His  daily  success  at  the  Hippodrome  did  not  divert 
him  from  the  end  he  had  in  view.  "Bridging  the  Abyss," 
for  him,  was  but  a  means  of  making  money,  to  enable 
him  to  climb  higher.  He  thought  of  nothing  but  that: 
getting  on,  climbing  higher ;  and  this  obsession  of  the 
future  made  him  scorn  or  rather  overlook  the  temptations 


315 

of  the  stage.  He  would  only  have  had  to  choose  among 
the  lot.  All,  down  to  the  great  Parisienne,  would  have 
jumped  at  a  champagne  supper  with  Jimmy,  the  famous 
bill-topper,  the  man  who  looked  like  the  swells  in  the 
front  boxes  and  who  made  such  a  "pile."  But  Jimmy 
knew  all  about  that:  he  left  the  theater  in  the  quietest 
way,  took  a  glass  of  ale  with  the  boys  or  girls  at  the 
Crown,  had  a  light  supper  and  went  home.  And  some- 
times a  frenzy  for  work  made  him  rush  to  his  table,  as 
though  the  band  of  the  Hippodrome  were  shaking  his 
nerves : 

"Get  to  work,"  he  would  growl,  "get  to  work,  cheesy 
brain !" 

"But,  Pa,  I  can't!" 

"But  you've  got  to,  my  little  siree!"  he  insisted,  with 
a  flickering  smile. 

And  he  read  treatises,  made  diagrams ;  took  up  his  com- 
passes again  ...  or  else  stayed  as  he  was,  with  his 
chin  in  his  hand,  plunged  in  his  thoughts,  his  mind  soar- 
ing above  London.  .  .  .  He  seemed  to  fly  over  the 
huge  city,  whose  distant  rumbling  rose  up  to  him,  similar 
to  the  roar  of  the  sea.  .  .  .  Oh,  he  would  succeed, 
he  knew  he  would !  And  he  felt  within  himself  an 
increasing  will  of  so  tenacious  a  character  that  he  could 
have  swung  it,  so  it  seemed  to  him,  like  a  battering-ram 
against  the  obstacle  to  be  overcome  and  then : 

"Damn  it!"  he  would  growl,  banging  his  fist  on  the 
table.  "That  thief  in  the  night!  What  a  sweet  wife  he 
got  hold  of !  Poor  Lily,  to  fall  into  such  hands !  Ah,  yes, 
she  would  have  done  better  to  stay  at  home !" 

And  Jimmy  got  to  work  again,  to  forget  Lily ;  and  he 
kept  on  thinking  of  her : 

"Damn  that  girl!" 


316  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

What  on  earth  did  he  think  of  her  for  ...  when  he 
didn't  love  her,  after  all  ? 

Even  during  his  triumphal  tour  of  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Trust,  that  Lily,  whom  he  did  not  love,  haunted 
his  memory.  At  first,  he  hoped  to  forget  her  in  his  life 
of  excessive  activity.  And  he  saw  so  many  theaters,  as 
many  as  Lily  did  in  England:  so  many  artistes,  on  so 
many  stages  .  .  .  faces  whom  he  had  already  met  in 
England :  fair  wigs,  scarlet  legs,  boyish  voices ;  "Roofers," 
"brothers"  and  "sisters,"  returning  from  London,  Man- 
chester, or  Glasgow.  He  would  have  ended  by  seeing 
them  all  again  in  time?  There  were  other  Lilies  shooting 
up,  Lilies  "that  high,"  elbowed  by  every  vice,  petted  by 
every  hand,  kissed  by  every  pair  of  lips.  His  sympathy 
went  out  to  them  all;  and  Lily  had  lived  amid  all 
that;  it  was  just  her  life.  He  found  something  to  re- 
mind him  of  her  at  every  turn,  on  those  stages  on  which 
she  had  performed.  He  seemed  to  see  her  near  him,  with 
her  light  walk,  in  her  little  black  dress,  looking  so  nice 
in  her  "performing-dog"  toque :  the  poor  little  silly  thing, 
running  away  with  that  thief  in  the  night  and  left  alone 
now,  quite  alone,  it  appeared,  among  the  "rotten  lot." 
The  thought  drove  him  mad : 

"Damn  that  girl!"  he  said  to  himself.  "I  don't  love 
her.  Then  why  am  I  always  thinking  about  her  ?" 

And  he  rushed  into  work,  into  danger,  when  he 
thought  of  that ;  risked  terrible  leaps  in  "Bridging  the 
Abyss."  He  sometimes  felt  as  though  he  were  rushing 
toward  oblivion,  into  the  jaws  of  death !  And  his  great 
project  also  nearly  outweighed  Lily's  influence: 

"What  are  the  leaps  in  'Bridging  the  Abyss/ "  he 
thought,  "if  not  a  fractional  flight?  If  I  had  two  flat 
surfaces,  one  on  either  side,  and  a  motor  behind  me,  it 


AMONG    THE.STARS  317 

seems  to  me  that  I  should  continue  to  go  upward;  and 
the  best  rudder  would  be  the  man  riding  it,  with  his 
flexible  body,  his  springy  back:  a  live  weight  is  less 
heavy  than  a  dead  weight.  How  many  hundred  volts 
does  pluck  stand  for  ...  or  skill  ...  or  ha- 
tred ...  or  love?" 

By  dint  of  composing  his  machine  in  his  head  and 
studying  it  on  paper,  Jimmy  grew  calmer.  He  thought 
less  about  Lily,  or,  at  least,  thought  about  her  only  in  her 
interest,  not  his.  For  instance,  in  that  little  town  in  the 
West  which  was  not  on  his  tour,  but  in  which  Trampy 
had  appeared,  Jimmy  tried  to  obtain  information.  He 
went  out  of  his  way  in  order  to  make  inquiries.  A  mar- 
riage with  Trampy  Wheel-Pad?  It  was  impossible  to 
discover  anything ;  and  he  would  not  be  able  to  make  Lily 
the  magnificent  present  which  he  had  dreamed  of:  her 
divorce  from  Trampy ! 

And  "Miss  Lily,"  Miss  Lily,  always ;  he  was  not  satis- 
fied with  thinking  of  her,  he  heard  her  name  mentioned. 
Boys  and  girls  who  had  seen  Lily  in  England  and  whom 
the  chances  of  travel  brought  across  his  path  in  America 
told  him  with  many  amplifications,  of  her  outrageous 
adventures,  her  passion  for  flirting.  She  no  longer  did 
all  her  turn.  She  paid  more  attention  to  her  dresses 
than  to  her  performance.  She  was  extravagant,  trav- 
eled with  her  maid,  put  up  at  the  big  hotels.  She  received 
bouquets,  my,  as  big  as  cabs,  and  invitations  to  supper 
and  post-cards  covered  with  x  x  x  x !  She  had  an  auto- 
graph-book full  of  declarations  of  love.  Motor-cars,  fur- 
nished houses :  she  was  offered  everything.  The  son  of  a 
lord  had  ruined  himself  in  jewelry  for  her,  the  imper- 
sonator was  nearly  off  his  head  for  love  of  her,  gee,  she 
did  have  a  good  time !  She  spent  her  life  receiving  choco- 


318  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

lates  and  sweets  and  distributing  her  photograph  as  Lady 
Godiva,  with  her  signature.  Lily,  according  to  them,  laid 
waste  every  heart ;  men  had  left  wife  and  children  for  her 
sake ;  her  love  affairs  were  going  the  round  of  the  world, 
like  her  whippings.  Lily  was  the  thing;  and  game  and 
mustard  for  Jim  Crow. 

These  tales  left  Jimmy  very  sad.  He  made  allowances 
for  professional  exaggeration  in  matters  of  love  as  of 
smackings,  but,  nevertheless,  there  must  be  some  truth 
in  what  they  said,  for  it  reached  him  from  various  sides. 
Oh,  he  pitied  that  dear  little  Lily  from  the  bottom  of  his 
heart !  The  harm  was  done,  the  theater  had  spoiled  the 
woman.  This  time,  he  felt  that  it  was  finished,  between 
her  and  him.  .  .  .  He,  no  doubt — who  could  tell? — 
would  continue  his  forward  progress,  and,  one  day,  he 
would  have  a  wife  of  his  own,  a  woman  without  a  past, 
and  he  would  take  his  stand  firmly  on  the  earth,  with  a 
home  and  love ;  and  Lily,  soon,  would  be  little  more  than  a 
dead  memory.  .  .  . 

Meanwhile,  his  brain,  redoubling  in  vigor  amid  those 
stormy  squalls,  took  in  everything,  seized  everything  in 
a  wide  sense,  became  steeped  in  life,  rejected  bitterness 
and  retained  enthusiasm.  He  heaped  up  personal  ob- 
servations which  he  noted  every  evening,  enough  to 
build  the  ideal  music-hall  one  day.  Harrasford,  he 
knew,  was  cherishing  that  plan.  Perhaps  they  would 
realize  it  together?  And  the  retreat  for  the  aged  and 
the  home  of  rest  for  the  sick,  and,  in  each  capital  or 
large  town,  a  local  artistes'  home — like  the  Sailors' 
Home — a  little  corner  of  England,  providing  comfort 
for  the  man  and  protection  for  the  girl.  And  his  scheme, 
his  scheme  was  ripe  now,  the  bold  stroke  which  would 
enable  him  to  realize  all  the  rest  later.  He  felt  the 


AMONG    THE    STARS  319 

strength  within  him,  if  not  to  succeed,  at  least  to 
dare  everything:  "Brass  Heart,"  as  he  had  been  chris- 
tened at  'Frisco.  He  had  served  an  apprenticeship  to 
will-power:  he  had  bruised  his  ribs  with  a  vengeance  in 
a  fall  at  the  Columbia  Theater  at  Cincinnati ;  he  had 
nearly  split  his  skull  at  the  Milwaukee  Majestic ;  he  had 
shed  his  blood  at  the  Washington  Orpheum ;  and  he  was 
going  to  risk  more  with  his  new  invention.  No  matter, 
he  had  now  but  one  idea,  to  return  to  England,  in  spite 
of  magnificent  offers  from  Australia. 

The  moment  he  reached  London,  he  set  to  work.  And 
he  fixed  up  the  whole  apparatus  at  his  leisure,  in  the 
shed  which  he  had  kept,  notwithstanding  the  expense: 
a  sort  of  large  hall  in  which  he  had  already  re- 
hearsed his  "Bridging  the  Abyss."  Here,  with  a  couple 
of  confidential  assistants  who  had  traveled  with  him  in 
America,  he  worked  from  morning  till  night,  correcting, 
revising,  improving,  in  the  midst  of  stretched  cords  and 
nets.  And  then  came  his  interview  with  Harrasford,  his 
engagement  at  the  Astrarium,  his  meeting  with  Lily,  in 
the  dressing-room  passage.  .  .  . 
.  And  it  was  untrue !  What  they  had  said  about  her  was 
a  lie!  Lily  had  not  fallen!  Jimmy,  merely  at  that  mo- 
ment's sight  of  her,  would  have  sworn  it  in  the  face  of 
the  whole  world:  the  tales  about  Lily,  due  probably  to 
professional  boasting  on  her  own  part, — were  false !  He 
knew  it,  because  he  had  seen  her  magnificent  anger  and 
the  flash  from  her  chaste  eyes.  And  he  would  give  Lily 
that  joy — he  owed  at  least  as  much  as  that  to  his  dead 
love — and  he  would  see  that  it  was  all  right.  It  would 
not  be  a  question  of : 

"Pa,  I  can't !" 

"But  you've  got  to,  my  little  lady !" 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 


She  would  have  to  dare  of  her  own  accord,  with  a  will 
of  adamant,  and  Lily  would  do  it,  Jimmy  was  sure  of 
that.  He  had  found  the  partner  wanted  for  his  success 
and  he  rejoiced  to  the  bottom  of  his  heart  as  he  led  Lily 
to  the  stage  of  the  Astrarium. 

Lily,  on  the  other  hand,  felt  an  anxiety  which  made  her 
sides  ache  and  her  heart  beat : 

"What  on  earth  can  it  be  ?"  she  asked  herself. 

But,  whatever  it  was,  she  would  do  it  if  it  cost  her  her 
skin !  And  Lily  did  not  even  take  the  stage  oath,  so  sin- 
cere and  spontaneous  was  her  resolve. 

"I'll  show  you,  Lily,"  said  Jimmy,  seeing  her  look  at 
the  hall  and  the  opening  in  the  ceiling  as  she  passed.  "It's 
a  new  trick." 

"Yes,"  said  Lily,  "new :  it'll  be  like  the  last,  they'll  take 
it  from  you  as  soon  as  it's  out.  It's  like  me,  the  tricks 
which  Pa  invented  and  which  the  fat  freaks  cribbed  from 
me.  Tricks  are  always  copied,  you  know  they  are,"  con- 
tinued Lily,  who  trembled  at  the  thought  of  seeing  others 
beside  herself  topping  the  bill  with  that. 

"You  needn't  be  afraid,"  said  Jimmy,  "they  won't  take 
this  one  from  me ;  and  yet  I  hope,  in  a  few  years'  time, 
to  see  it  all  over  the  place." 

"You  hope  to  have  it  taken  from  you  in  a  few  years 
only,  eh?  But  why?" 

"For  a.\l  the  world  to  profit  by  it." 

"All  the  world  on  the  back-wheel !"  protested  Lily,  who 
was  always  thinking  bikes.  "Then  what  will  become  of 
the  artistes  ?" 

"In  a  few  years,  Lily,  people  won't  go  about  on  wheels," 
said  Jimmy  jokingly. 

"What  will  they  do  then  ?" 

"They'll  fly !" 


AMONG    THE    STARS  321 

Lily  would  have  burst  out  laughing-,  in  other  circum- 
stances ;  but  they  had  now  reached  the  stage.  The  iron 
curtain  was  down.  She  looked  round  with  scared  eyes 
for  something  out  of  the  common.  Jimmy,  after  making 
sure  that  they  were  quite  alone,  walked  up  to  the  mon- 
ster's cage,  slid  back  the  door  .  .  . 

The  aerobike,  with  wings  wide  open,  seemed  to  loom 
out  of  the  darkness. 

"My !"  cried  Lily.  "It's  a  bird !  So  that  was  your  brain- 
work  in  Berlin  and  in  ...  What  is  it  ?" 

It  was,  in  any  case,  a  strange  creature,  with  two  in- 
clined planes,  one  on  either  side,  that  looked  like  wings ; 
and,  at  the  back,  it  showed  a  screw-propeller  sticking  up 
in  the  air,  like  a  tail.  The  whole  thing  rested  on  two 
wheels. 

"And  it's  a  bike,  too !  I  knew  it !"  cried  Lily,  clapping 
her  hands.  "Well  done,  Jimmy!  And  do  you  want  me 
to  get  up  on  it?  Come  along!  Just  wait  till  I  take  my 
hat  off,"  she  went  on,  drawing  out  the  hat-pins  from 
under  her  big  feathers. 

"Not  so  fast!"  said  Jimmy,  laughing.  "Keep  calm! 
We'll  start  next  week.  There  are  a  good  many  little 
things  to  make  sure  of  first;  and  then  I  must  put  up  a 
cable  in  case  of  a  fall." 

"I  don't  care  a  hang  for  a  fall,"  cried  Lily,  immensely 
excited.  "You'll  soon  see  if  I'm  afraid !" 

"Be  serious,  Lily.  Listen  to  me,"  replied  Jimmy.  "Yes, 
you  will  have  to  stand  on  the  back-wheel,  but  not  to  ride 
round  the  stage.  You  will  have  to  start  up  at  full  speed 
and  then  go  up  and  up,  straight  up,  into  space  and  then 
shoot  out  through  a  hole  which  they  are  making  in  the 
roof." 

"Yes,"  said  Lily,  "I  saw.     .     .    .    My,  that  makes  a 


322  THE    BILL -TOPPERS 

good  distance  !  And,  when  I'm  through  the  hole,  what  do 
I  do  up  there?  Go  on  .  .  .  !" 

"I'll  explain  all  that  to  you,"  said  Jimmy. 

"Dive  into  the  street,  eh?"  asked  Lily,  in  her  Spartan 
voice.  "Well,  I  don't  care!  Anything!  I'll  do  anything! 
And  I'll  show  them,"  she  added,  to  herself,  "if  you  can 
do  that  through  your  gentlemen  friends !" 

But  she  calmed  herself :  after  all,  she  was  going  to  top 
the  bill;  have  her  name  in  all  the  papers,  with  her  por- 
trait ;  see  the  walls  covered  with  her  posters.  What  a  re- 
venge for  her!  That  was  enough,  for  the  moment.  She 
did  not  want  to  appear  surprised  before  Jimmy.  The 
right  thing  was  to  take  it  as  something  very  natural,  like 
a  lady  who  is  used  to  the  best. 

Jimmy,  meanwhile,  was  explaining  his  trick: 

"We  shan't  fly  at  once,"  he  said.  "We  shall  practise 
on  the  stand  to  learn  how  the  handles  work.  Oh,  you'll 
have  to  think  of  everything  during  the  few  seconds  that 
the  flight  lasts !  The  machine  isn't  perfect,  it's  a  first  at- 
tempt, it  can  only  be  ridden  by  a  professional  and  a  very 
clever  one.  Look  here,"  he  continued,  "it's  the  principle  of 
the  back-wheel ;  you'll  have  to  keep  your  side-balance  and 
front  and  back,  but  you'll  do  it,  I'm  sure.  I've  done  it." 

"What  you  can  do,  a  man,"  Lily  interrupted,  "I  can  do 
too.  One  can  do  anything  on  the  bike !" 

The  machine  which  Jimmy  explained  to  Lily  in  detail 
was  a  bike  just  like  another,  with  a  few  differences  in  its 
general  construction,  bearing  upon  the  services  which  it 
was  expected  to  perform.  The  saddle,  for  instance,  was 
made  to  slide  backward  and  forward,  so  that  the  center 
of  equilibrium  could  be  shifted  with  a  push  of  the  rider's 
back.  The  stability  of  the  apparatus  did  not  depend  upon 
that  alone.  The  ascensional  rudder  or  screw-propeller, 


AMONG   THE    STARS  323 

which  was  able  to  impart  a  speed  of  thirty  miles  an  hour 
to  the  machine,  was  in  the  extension  of  the  horizontal 
bar  of  the  frame.  It  was  fitted  to  a  long  piece  of 
bent  steel,  pinned  below  the  saddle,  which,  running  be- 
side the  frame,  ended  by  forming  a  pedal,  so  that,  with 
a  pressure  of  the  foot,  the  rider  could  move  it  down- 
ward, at  will,  within  an  arc  of  some  ten  degrees.  This 
propeller,  which  was  small  in  dimensions,  but  endowed 
with  enormous  speed,  was,  in  its  normal  position,  per- 
pendicular to  the  frame.  The  pressure  of  the  foot  raised 
it  to  its  highest  point.  In  this  position,  the  propeller 
turned  at  full  speed  and  therefore  tended  to  descend  and, 
consequently,  to  point  the  front  of  the  aerobike  upward. 
When  brought  still  lower,  its  ascensional  force  increased 
and  the  front  of  the  aerobike  pitched  downward.  These 
two  extremes  would  obviously  serve  only  in  sudden  move- 
ments. In  reality,  the  rider's  skill  would  consist  in  mov- 
ing the  propeller  only  very  slightly,  in  order  to  maintain 
a  horizontal  flight.  As  for  the  machine  itself,  Jimmy  had 
rejected  the  cumbersome  system  of  cells,  which  he  com- 
pared to  boxes : 

"The  shape  of  a  fish  for  the  ship,  the  shape  of  a  bird 
for  the  flying-machine,"  he  said. 

He  stuck  to  that  principle  and  therefore  he  had  added 
two  enormous  wings,  one  on  each  side.  He  had  first  ex- 
perimented with  reduced  models,  shaped  like  a  bird, 
sending  them  up  anyhow,  to  see,  and  he  had  ended  by  con- 
structing one  which  preserved  its  stability  when  gliding 
over  the  atmospheric  layers.  He  had  thus  been  led  to  con- 
struct wings  with  a  slightly  rounded  surface  whose  co- 
efficient of  yield  was  nearly  double  that  of  wings  with  flat 
surfaces.  The  width  of  these  wings  was  about  five  feet 
and  their  length  about  sixteen.  They  tapered  a  little, 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

were  drawn  out  in  front  and  widened  at  the  opposite  end, 
so  as  to  get  a  more  powerful  hold  of  the  air.  They  were 
made  of  double-milled  canvas,  stretched  on  curved  ash 
and  fastened  to  the  sections  by  aluminum,  stays  riveted 
with  copper  and  clenched.  They  were  as  light  as  they 
were  stiff.  These  two  wings  pointed  slightly  upward  in 
front,  parallel  to  the  machine,  and  were  fastened  to  it  in 
the  middle  by  means  of  an  axis  below  the  saddle-pillar, 
which  brought  their  axis  to  the  center  of  gravity.  Other 
ingenious  and  quite  individual  arrangements  made  the 
apparatus  very  manageable.  The  resistance  of  the  air, 
combined  with  the  propelling  power  of  the  screw,  exer- 
cised all  its  force  in  vain :  the  wings  remained  stationary. 
Their  lines  were  carefully  studied  to  facilitate  the  flow 
of  the  air,  on  the  principle  of  Langley's  kite :  and  the  two 
of  them  presented  a  carrying  surface  of  forty-nine  square 
feet. 

"It's  not  much,"  Jimmy  explained  to  Lily,  who  listened 
attentively.  "If  I  carried  my  motor,"  he  said,  "I  should 
have  a  bigger  surface.  The  machine  ought  then,  theo- 
retically speaking,  to  rise  when  it  is  going  at  a  rate 
of  thirty  miles  an  hour;  with  a  good  back  push  the 
front-wheel  would  leave  the  ground  and  continue  its 
course  upward.  But,  on  the  stage,  we  have  no  room  to 
acquire  speed:  we  shall  get  it  from  an  inclined  plane,  as 
at  the  start  of  'Looping  the  Loop.'  As  for  the  side  steer- 
ing, the  front  wheel  has  spokes  fitted  with  canvas  and 
offers  resistance  to  the  air:  it  will  steer  the  aerobike  to 
left  or  right  at  a  touch  of  the  handle-bar,  as  in  ordinary 
riding,  and  there  you  are,  Lily." 

"My !"  said  Lily,  bewildered  by  all  this  complicated  ap- 
paratus. "Did  you  work  it  all  out  on  paper?  It's  enough 
to  drive  one  mad !" 


AMONG    THE    STARS  325 

"When  you're  on  it,  Lily,"  said  Jimmy,  smiling,  "you'll 
have  to  work  also,  I  promise  you.  But,  with  your  talent, 
.  .  .  you'll  manage  better  than  I  should.  And  to- 
morrow," he  added,  "I  will  give  you  something  on 
account  of  your  salary." 

"No,  I  have  money,"  said  Lily,  very  proudly  and  fear- 
ing lest  she  should  wear  out  her  luck  by  adding  that  to 
it,  by  being  paid  for  doing  nothing.  .  .  . 

Lily  spent  the  whole  week  in  a  fever  of  expectation; 
she  did  not  know  where  she  was  for  joy.  But  she  stifled 
that  within  herself.  And  it  was  owing  to  her  talent,  all 
owing  to  her  talent !  When  people  wanted  a  difficult  trick 
done,  they  did  not  go  to  Daisy  or  the  fat  freaks,  no,  they 
came  to  little  Lily!  And  it  was  settled,  she  wanted  no 
more  familiarity,  now  that  she  was  going  to  top  the 
bill  at  the  Astrarium !  A  lady  should  be  more  reserved 
in  her  friendships:  she  would  make  herself  very  short- 
sighted, so  short-sighted  as  to  be  almost  blind,  when  she 
met  the  rotten  lot !  Resolved,  that  she  would  give  up  say- 
ing, "Damn  it !"  give  up  talking  of  smackings  and  using 
vulgar  expressions : 

"Do  you  hear,  Glass-Eye?"  she  said,  calling  her  maid 
to  witness.  "You're  to  box  my  ears  if  you  catch  me  at  it 
again !" 

The  thought  of  having  to  handle  that  delicate  machine 
increased  Lily's  importance  in  her  own  eyes.  She  had 
noticed  that  Poland,  apart  from  an  inordinate  love  of 
champagne  suppers,  had  very  nice  manners:  Lily  would 
profit  by  her  example  and  become  more  refined  ;  she  would 
show  Pa  and  Ma  the  kind  of  Lily  they  had  lost  and  she 
would  crush  them  with  the  amount  of  her  salary!  She 
would  earn  more  by  herself  than  the  whole  troupe.  She 
would  let  them  know  it,  even  if  she  had  to  do  the  trick 


326  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

for  nothing,  for  glory,  to  see  her  Ma  beg  her  pardon  on 
her  knees !  She  had  recovered  all  the  pride  of  her  eighteen 
years,  all  her  freshness,  in  a  day :  the  touch  of  bitterness 
about  her  lips  had  changed  into  a  smile.  It  would  have 
taken  very  little  more  to  make  her  dance  for  joy.  But  she 
restrained  herself,  dared  not  believe  in  her  happiness; 
and  she  was  quite  decided  not  to  accept  anything  from 
Jimmy  before  earning  it.  It  was  bad  enough  to  owe  him 
that  thousand  marks.  She  made  herself  a  nice  practising 
dress  and  spent  the  morning  in  bed  reading  a  novel  of 
fashionable  life,  of  which  the  heroine  was  called  Lily,  like 
herself !  And  she,  too,  would  become  a  society-girl,  just 
to  show  them,  damn  it !  But,  suddenly,  catching  herself 
at  fault,  she  laughed  and  asked  Glass-Eye  for  a  box  on 
the  ear ;  and  a  desperate  pillow-fight  ensued,  in  which 
they  indulged  whole-heartedly,  like  two  regular  torn-boys 
who  loved  to  wrestle  and  punch  each  other.  And  it  put 
her  in  a  good  humor  for  the  rest  of  the  day.  She  went 
shopping  through  the  windows,  only  bought  herself  a 
spray  of  roses  to  fasten  to  her  bodice.  She  went  to  the 
Astrarium,  walked  in  as  though  the  place  belonged  to 
her,  followed  by  her  maid.  She  examined  the  works 
with  the  eye  of  an  expert.  Three  days,  three  days  more 
and  she  would  begin  to  rehearse !  Her  legs  were  itching 
to  commence ! 

The  alterations  to  the  stage  especially  interested  her: 
The  door  of  the  cage  remained  closed  and  Lily  looked  at 
the  auditorium : 

"Is  it  possible,  after  all  ?"  she  thought. 

And  she  measured  the  distance  with  her  eye.  It  seemed 
enormous  to  her,  but  never  mind,  she'd  do  it !  And  she 
grew  wildly  enthusiastic  in  the  midst  of  all  that  activity, 
of  a  theater  which  was  being  rearranged  for  her : 


AMONG   THE    STARS 


327 


"For  me,  Glass-Eye!  All  of  it  for  me!  From  here," 
she  said,  stamping  her  foot  on  the  stage,  "from  here  to 
right  up  there !"  And  she  pointed  to  the  hole  in  the  sky. 
"All  that  on  the  bike  !  A  somersault  miles  high !" 


-r 


OLD  MARTELLO 

Glass-Eye  opened  two  terrified  eyes,  wondered  if  Lily 
was  going  mad.  .  .  . 

Glass-Eye  had  become  dulled  through  constant  obedi- 
ence, had  lost  her  memory,  mixed  up  her  yeses  and  noes, 
like  those  actors  who  forget  their  parts  through  playing 
them  too  frequently;  her  recent  life  had  excited  her  too 
much,  and  never  a  sou  in  her  pocket,  only  barely  enough 


328  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

to  eat  ...  it  was  ten  times  worse  than  in  Rathbone 
Place.  .  .  .  And  then  that  new  crotchet  of  Lily's. 

"Can  I  fly,  Glass-Eye,  or  can't  I  ?  Am  I  a  bird  or  am 
I  not?"  It  was  enough  to  make  Glass-Eye  lose  her 
head.  .  .  . 

Glass-Eye  was  obliged  to  answer  yes  .  .  .  and  that 
very  quickly.  But  she  kept  on  trotting  behind  Lily,  who, 
realizing  that  she  would  soon  be  taken  up  with  her  re- 
hearsals, took  advantage  of  her  last  days  of  liberty  to  pay 
visits  and  show  herself  a  little,  accompanied  by  her  maid, 
like  the  fine  lady  that  she  was.  She  went  and  took  the 
Bambinis  some  candies.  Poor  kids !  Their  games  and 
laughter  no  longer  filled  the  hotel  with  mirth  and  gaiety : 
old  Martello  was  getting  worse  and  worse  and  was  now 
not  able  to  leave  his  room  at  all.  Lily  found  a  kind  word 
for  everybody  and  was  grieved  at  not  having  any  money, 
which  would  have  allowed  her  to  be  generous.  That 
would  come  later.  She  worked  out  a  scheme  for  occupy- 
ing herself  with  the  children  when  the  old  man  was  gone, 
for  having  them  always  with  her,  like  two  dear  little  lucky 
charms.  It  was  impossible,  of  course :  never  mind,  it  was 
the  idea  of  a  lady,  which  she  would  not  have  had  in  the 
old  days,  and  Lily  was  pleased  with  herself  for  having 
entertained  it. 

"I  will  speak  about  you  to  Jimmy,"  she  said  to  the 
Bambinis.  "I'll  get  you  engaged  at  the  Astrarium,  eh  ?" 

And  the  old  man  trembled  with  delight,  stammered  out 
his  thanks,  tried  to  accompany  her  to  the  door,  like  -a 
princess;  and  the  little  boy,  to  thank  her,  promised  to 
teach  her  a  way  of  standing  on  your  head  which  he  had 
learned  all  by  himself ! 

"Poor  darlings!"  thought  Lily,  as  she  left  them.  "If 
ever  they  fall  into  their  brother's  hands !  They  would  be 


AMONG   THE    STARS  329 

better  dead!  Luckily  for  them,  he  has  disappeared  for 
good;  and  his  Ave  Maria  with  him,  unluckily  for  me!" 

For  Lily  understood  how  badly  her  position  as  a  lady 
•went  with  that  name  of  Mrs.  Trampy.  It  was  like  drag- 
ging a  tin  kettle  at  her  skirts,  to  make  the  people  in  the 
street  turn  round  and  look  at  her. 

And,  more  than  ever  before,  Trampy  posed  as  a  faith- 
ful husband.  Nothing  sufficed  to  take  down  his  arro- 
gance. Always  the  same  old  Trampy:  great,  by  Jove! 
And,  with  his  red  lips,  his  glittering  eye  and  the  cigar 
stuck  in  the  corner  of  his  mouth,  he  made  love  to  second- 
rate  "sisters,"  inferior  Roofers  in  red  calico  skirts.  His 
glamorous  title  as  the  bill-topper's  husband  still  won  him 
a  few  conquests.  And  Trampy,  especially  since  Jimmy's 
return,  plumed  himself  more  and  more  on  the  fact  that 
he  was  the  husband  of  his  dear  little  wife ! 

Lily  knew  all  this  and  it  made  her  fume  with  rage  at 
heart;  but  she  showed  nothing,  pretended,  on  the  con- 
trary, to  treat  it  as  a  little  matter  of  no  account.  For 
instance,  after  her  visit  to  the  Bambinis,  as  she  passed  an 
artistes'  bar,  quite  close,  there  stood  Trampy,  lording  it 
on  the  pavement,  among  a  lot  of  unemployed  pros.  Lily 
made  herself  short-sighted  to  the  point  of  absolute  blind- 
ness. Trampy  caught  her,  as  she  passed,  with  a : 

"Hullo,  Lily!  Hullo,  my  dear  little  wife!" 

But  Lily  behaved  like  a  real  fine  lady  who  knows  how 
to  put  people  in  their  place  without  calling  them  names : 

"Hullo,  Mr.  Trampy !"  she  replied,  in  a  sarcastic  tone. 
"Still  got  your  red-hot  stove,  Mr.  Trampy?  Still  a  suc- 
cess with  the  girls?  Kind  regards,  Mr.  Trampy!" 


CHAPTER  II 

But  Lily  was  grandest  of  all  at  the  rehearsals.  She  was 
now  no  longer  a  lady :  she  once  more  became  the  Spartan, 
bare-necked,  her  hair  undone,  her  body  streaming  with 
perspiration,  and  to  work,  to  work,  to  make  up  for  lost 
time !  In  the  mornings,  alone  on  the  deserted  stage,  she 
practised  and  practised.  .  .  . 

"Come  on!"  said  Jimmy.  "And  mind  you  do  your 
work  properly,"  he  added,  with  a  laugh,  "or  else,  you 
know  ..." 

And  he  patted  the  back  of  his  hand. 

"I  don't  care !"  said  Lily. 

"You  may  break  your  head,  you  know,"  continued 
Jimmy,  to  try  her. 

"It's  none  of  your  damned  business  if  I  do !  Show  me 
your  tricks.  To  work!" 

And  Jimmy  showed  her  a  movement  to  execute  on  her 
bike,  which  she  had  brought  with  her :  balancings,  as  ia 
"Bridging  the  Abyss,"  an  excellent  training  for  the  aero- 
bike.  And  Lily  went  about  it  clear-eyed,  hard-cheeked, 
with  all  the  little  muscles  contracted  on  her  stubborn  fore- 
head, ready  to  butt  at  the  obstacle.  A  few  falls  to  begin 
with,  but  she  jumped  up  again  nimbly : 

"That's  all  right !"  she  said.  "It's  part  of  the  game !" 

"But  stop,  stop,"  insisted  Jimmy.    "Be  careful!" 

They  were  sometimes  on  the  stage  for  hours  at  a  time, 
but  to  Lily,  all  wrapped  in  her  work,  it  seemed  so  many 

330 


AMONG    THE    STARS  331 

minutes.  She  understood  the  jerk  which  she  was  to  give 
at  the  moment  when,  after  rolling1  along  the  inclined 
plane,  she  should  shoot  out  into  space  for  the  soaring 
flight  of  fifty  yards : 

"The  start,  that's  the  great  thing  with  the  back-wheel," 
she  observed.  "The  rest  goes  of  itself." 

"Don't  cry  till  you're  out  of  the  wood!"  said  Jimmy. 
"It'll  be  different  when  you're  riding  the  aerobike." 

Lily  was  longing  to  begin  that  famous  practice !  And, 
a  few  days  later,  she  at  last  had  that  delight,  took  that 
further  step  toward  triumph.  Jimmy  removed  the  bird 
from  the  cage,  fixed  it  on  a  stand.  When  Lily  sat  in  the 
saddle,  she  was  crimson  with  pleasure,  prouder  than  a 
princess  sitting  on  a  throne  for  the  first  time : 

"There,"  she  said.  "Here  I  am!  And  what  next?" 

Jimmy  explained  the  complicated  touches — "Press 
your  left  foot,  there,  like  that,  to  make  it  point  upward" 
— and  showed  how,  explained  why ;  then  he  passed  to  the 
working  of  the  handle-bar — "There,  like  that,  to  turn  it, 
there" — and  how  and  why  the  saddle  slipped  backward 
and  forward. 

"And  then?" 

"That's  all." 

"That's  all?"  repeated  Lily.  "That  won't  want  any 
smackings!  Let's  see,  like  this,  eh?  Then  that.  Sup- 
pose I'm  coming  down  at  full  speed.  I  throw  myself 
backward,  a  back  push,  there,  like  that.  A  kick,  gently, 
there,  that's  it.  I'll  do  it  as  soon  as  you  like !  This  min- 
ute, if  necessary!" 

But  Jimmy,  without  replying  to  these  sallies,  proceeded 
methodically.  He  made  her  practise  again,  standing  still, 
with  the  motor  going  at  half-speed.  This  was  a  different 
impulse :  the  displacement  of  the  air  raised  a  stormy  wind, 


332  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

the  dust  flew,  the  scenery  hanging  from  the  flies  waved 
to  and  fro  and  Lily  shook  in  her  saddle  under  the  vibra- 
tion of  the  propeller. 

"Well,  Lily?"  said  Jimmy.  "That  shakes  you  up,  eh? 
That  complicates  matters?" 

"Pooh!"  said  Lily.  "And  what  about  the  boards? 
There  are  some  of  them  that  are  pretty  rough,  too!  At 
Pittsburg,  you  know,  it's  like  riding  over  cobblestones. 
I  prefer  that  to  a  stage  that's  too  smooth :  it's  less  treach- 
erous." 

A  few  days  later,  Jimmy  ran  up  a  steel  cable  from  the 
stage  to  the  opening  in  the  ceiling,  which  was  now  fin- 
ished and  covered  with  a  tarpaulin ;  and  Lily  was  to  try 
the  flying.  At  the  time  for  practice,  there  was  no  one  in 
the  theater,  from  which  the  scaffoldings  had  been  re- 
moved. There  were  no  seats  on  the  floor  or  in  the  boxes : 
everything  was  being  made  outside,  and  would  be  put  in 
place  in  a  day  or  two.  In  the  afternoon,  when  there  was 
no  practice,  the  house  was  filled  with  workmen,  painters, 
upholsterers,  carpenters,  whose  places  were  taken  by  oth- 
ers at  night,  working  by  electric  light.  Ten  days  more 
and  they  would  have  the  triumphal  opening ;  already  Paris 
was  covered  with  picture  placards:  you  saw  Tom,  as  a 
caryatid,  supporting  the  weight  of  a  palace ;  the  Three 
Graces  entwined  in  their  radiant  nudity ;  the  impersona- 
tor standing,  like  a  Don  Juan,  surrounded  by  a  bevy  of 
women :  the  ballet-girl,  the  shop-girl,  the  fine  lady ;  then, 
besides  those,  the  New  Trickers — "My  idea!"  thought 
Lily,  but  she  didn't  care  a  jot  now — the  New  Trickers 
fluttered  round  Daisy.  You  saw  the  elephants ;  the  mon- 
key ;  Patti-Patty,  the  white  negress ;  all,  all,  down  to  the 
Bambinis,  whom  Lily  had  "got"  engaged.  The  whole 
program  was  reverberated  on  the  walls  and  hoardings, 


AMONG   THE    STARS  333 

like  a  thousand-voiced  echo.  An  even  larger  poster  than 
the  others,  all  blue,  strewn  with  stars,  displayed  the  aero- 
bike  in  full  flight  in  the  sky ;  and  a  human  figure,  seated 
upon  it,  lifted  a  hand  filled  with  rays. 

The  mere  sight  of  the  posters  was  enough  to  stimulate 
Lily  to  the  maddest  feats  of  daring.  She  felt  herself 
firmer  than  steel,  when  she  thought  of  the  New  Trickers 
and  of  Pa  and  Ma,  who  were  coming  with  Daisy,  their 
farthing  dip ! 

When  everything  was  ready,  Jimmy  hung  the  aerobike 
to  the  steel  cable  by  two  ropes,  ten  feet  long,  ending  in 
pulleys  which  ran  along  the  cable.  Each  of  these  two 
ropes  was  looped  up  and  the  loop  secured  with  thin  twine : 
this  was  an  infallible  way  of  ascertaining  if  the  aerobike 
weighed  down  upon  them  or  if  it  was  supporting  itself 
in  the  air ;  the  two  cords  acted  as  a  spring  balance  regis- 
tering the  tension  in  the  rope.  Should  the  twine  break, 
because  the  aerobike  rested  on  the  ropes,  then  the  ropes 
would  unloop  and  the  machine  remain  hanging  without 
any  danger  for  Lily.  This  was  the  way  in  which  Jimmy 
had  worked  when  learning  "his  trade  as  a  bird,"  as  he 
called  it ;  and  Lily,  he  had  no  doubt,  would  succeed  even 
better  than  he  did,  being  more  supple,  lighter  and  quite 
as  plucky. 

Oh,  the  rapture  with  which  Lily  bestrode  the  aerobike 
for  the  first  flight ! 

Jimmy  and  two  confidential  assistants  hauled  up  the 
machine  to  the  top  of  the  inclined  plane  that  gave  it  its 
impetus.  Jimmy  spent  an  endless  time  in  verifying 
and  testing  everything.  The  electric  wire  that  set  the 
propeller  in  motion  also  caused  him  uneasiness.  It  had 
to  unroll  behind  and  follow  the  aerobike  without  weigh- 
ing upon  it,  without  retarding  its  flight ;  for  the  machine, 


334  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

which  was  necessarily  a  small  one,  to  be  able  to  move 
within  a  confined  space,  did  not  carry  the  additional 
load  of  a  motor,  but  only  a  wire,  as  wireless  transmission 
of  power  was  not  yet  available.  At  last,  when  every- 
thing was  provided  for,  Jimmy  allowed  Lily  to  make  her 
trial.  He  trembled;  not  that  she  ran  any  danger,  for 
a  fall  was  impossible :  the  machine  was  stopped,  up  above, 
automatically,  by  a  cable  stretched  crosswise  and  fastened 
to  a  strong  spring,  which  slowed  and  stayed  the  flight 
within  the  space  of  a  few  yards.  But  if  the  two  pieces  of 
twine  broke  suddenly  and  if  this  happened  several  times 
in  succession,  the  shocks  might  come  to  frighten  Lily, 
for  all  her  self-control. 

And  Jimmy  went  on  explaining. 

"I  know,"  said  Lily.  "I  quite  understand.  It's  like 
this,  like  this,  yes,  I  know.  It's  only  a  matter  of  trying! 
It's  a  trick  I've  got  to  do  and  that's  all  about  it !  Daisy 
would  kill  herself  on  it  and  so  would  the  fat  freaks,  but 
I  shan't !  I  shall  succeed." 

"Well,  then,  steady !"  cried  Jimmy,  and  his  voice  rang 
through  the  empty  theater.  "Go !" 

The  machine  ran  down  with  a  swoop,  the  propeller 
whirred,  Lily  gave  a  magnificent  back  push,  when  she 
reached  the  bottom  of  the  inclined  plane ;  then  she  went 
straight  up  and  the  two  pieces  of  twine  snapped  in  two. 
Lily  found  herself  hanging  fifty  feet  in  the  air,  the  two 
pulleys  glided  slowly  backward  toward  the  stage.  Jimmy 
stopped  the  machine. 

"That's  wrong!"  cried  Lily.  "Let's  try  again.  I  see 
what  it  was :  I  forgot  to  push  down  my  foot  to  point  the 
machine  up.  It  was  a  slip." 

However,  at  the  next  attempt,  it  went  better.  The 
twine  broke  each  time,  but  Lily  rectified  her  movements ; 


AMONG    THE    STARS  335 

"It's  my  back  push !  It's  the  propeller !  It's  the  front- 
wheel!" 

And,  in  fact,  that  was  what  it  was.  Jimmy  and  his  as- 
sistants, who  followed  her  with  their  eyes,  had  noted  the 
fault  and  Lily,  too,  had  observed  it,  in  spite  of  the  giddy 
flight.  She  was  extraordinarily  plucky  and  cool,  her 
eight  stone  of  flesh  and  bone,  unerring  and  exact,  seemed 
made  for  the  aerobike. 

"Bravo,  Lily!   Hurrah!"  cried  Jimmy. 

She  could  have  screamed  for  joy  in  the  street,  as  she 
went  out. 

Her  unparalleled  stroke  of  luck  in  being  chosen  tickled 
her  heart.  She  felt  her  sense  of  responsibility  increase  and 
also  her  wish  to  do  well ;  no  sooner  had  she  left  off  prac- 
tising than  she  was  seized  with  but  one  idea,  to  begin 
again : 

"Eight  days  more !"  she  thought. 

At  night,  she  dreamed  of  backward  jerks,  of  turning 
the  handle-bar,  pushing  the  pedal.  Poor  Glass-Eye,  cow- 
ering in  a  corner  of  the  bed,  had  terrible  nightmares,  and, 
in  the  morning,  after  Lily's  kicks,  she  rose  with  her  ribs 
smarting  and  her  shins  all  black  and  blue.  That  was  all 
her  profit,  for  Lily  had  hardly  any  money  left  and  was  not 
yet  drawing  a  salary. 

Lily  submitted  to  all  sorts  of  privation  with  a  proud 
dignity.  She  would  be  beholden  to  nobody.  Soon  her 
whole  fortune  would  consist  of  her  box  of  lucky  half- 
pence and  a  franc  which  she  had  won  by  turning  a  cart- 
wheel, for  a  bet,  among  artistes,  in  the  country,  to 
stagger  the  jossers.  And  so  their  little  evening  meal 
was  a  scanty  one.  A  sausage,  a  little  fruit,  a  cup  of  tea 
.  .  .  and  then  to  bed.  That  was  better  than  listening 
to  the  owner  of  the  Hours  and  all  those  men  who  propose 


336  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

things  to  you.  Never,  never !  Her  work,  her  work !  Lord, 
after  what  she  had  seen  of  Poland  and  the  Hours,  it  was 
much  simpler  to  work,  to  be  self-reliant.  At  night,  some- 
times, Lily  would  lie  awake  and  think  .  .  .  where  did 
that  three  hundred  francs  of  the  Bijou  come  from?  Not 
from  the  Bijou :  Cataplasm's  defeat  had  swallowed  up  ev- 
erything and  the  theater  had  long  been  without  a  penny ; 
they  used  to  fill  the  house  with  paper  distributed  among 
the  staff,  with  orders  to  get  rid  of  it  anyhow.  They  were 
not  far  short  of  inviting  soldiers  from  the  barracks. 
There  had  never  been  more  than  two  hundred  seats  paid 
for  of  an  evening ;  it  meant  flat  bankruptcy.  And  she  was 
the  only  one  who  had  received  anything:  why?  How? 
Then  it  must  have  been  some  admirer,  but  who  ?  Not  the 
architect,  surely,  that  josser!  Who  then?  And  why 
had  Jimmy  engaged  the  Bambinis,  when  she  asked  him 
to  ?  He  did  everything  to  please  her.  He  was  letting  her 
top  the  bill :  why  ?  She  made  a  heap  of  guesses,  without 
getting  at  the  exact  truth  .  .  .  Jimmy  .  .  . 
Jimmy  .  .  .  that  man,  with  his  coldness,  interested 
her.  While  so  many  others  were  prowling  around  her, 
he  alone  seemed  indifferent.  She  would  have  liked  to  see 
him  in  love  with  her  ...  to  make  him  suffer  a  little 
in  his  turn!  All  the  beauty-shows  which  Lily  had 
seen,  all  the  exhibitions  of  painted  Hours  had  not  spoiled 
her  good  taste :  Jimmy  pleased  her,  with  that  strong  face 
of  his.  What  an  endless  pity  that  she  had  married 
Trampy !  She  gave  a  scornful  pout  when  she  thought  of 
it:  she  married  to  Trampy!  Married  to  that  soaker: 
she,  a  woman  made  for  a  man,  a  creature  of  flesh 
and  blood,  who  admired  fine  muscles,  rough  sport  and 
virile  smackings !  Gee,  if  she  had  been  a  man,  it  seemed 
to  her  that  she  would  have  enjoyed  spoiling  a  little  Lily : 


AMONG    THE    STARS  337 

outside  working  hours,  of  course !  And,  if  a  little  Lily 
had  asked  her,  "Do  you  love  me,  yes  or  no?"  she  would 
never  have  answered  no.  To-day,  she  would  have  bitten 
off  her  own  tongue  rather  than  put  that  question  to 
Jimmy!  And  yet  Jimmy  had  a  dignity  about  him  that 
pleased  her.  She  could  see  into  the  game  of  the  others. 
The  architect,  for  instance,  would  give  her  just  a  smile  in 
passing,  a  pleasant  word,  as  one  performs  a  social  duty, 
between  two  pieces  of  business.  A  little  amusement,  no 
more :  that  was  all  she  was  to  him  .  .  .  and  to  all  of 
them.  Jimmy  seemed  different.  But,  still,  if  he  loved 
her,  why  hadn't  he  the  courage  to  tell  her  so?  And, 
besides,  when  all  was  said,  she  was  sick  and  tired  of  men ! 
Some  of  them  ran  after  you  like  dogs ;  others,  damn  it, 
were  icicles !  A  girl  could  have  Marjutti's  figure,  Thea's 
arms,  Nancy's  legs,  Lillian's  or  Laurence's  face  .  .  . 
and  still  they  would  not  be  satisfied!  And  thereupon 
Lily  pursed  her  brows,  asked  herself  how  and  why  and 
went  to  sleep  like  a  baby. 

And  the  rehearsals  continued  every  day,  without  re- 
spite. Lily  became  terrible  the  nearer  she  drew  to  success : 
her  indomitable  spirit  mounted  to  her  heart.  Jimmy  had 
difficulty  in  holding  her  in.  She  made  twenty  flights, 
thirty  flights  .  .  .  and  the  twine  no  longer  broke. 
From  that  moment,  she  was  sure  of  succeeding,  always. 
When  you  have  once  succeeded,  even  if  it  be  but  once, 
you  have  no  right  ever  to  fail  again.  She  had  been 
brought  up  in  those  principles,  had  had  them  rubbed  into 
her  skin.  She  could  not  fail  now,  it  was  impossible! 
Even  in  her  flight  to  the  opening  up  above!  She  had 
learned  her  "times,"  she  knew  how  to  aim  exactly  at  the 
right  spot.  Jimmy  hastened  to  have  the  roof  arranged 
for  the  final  exit,  when  the  aerobike  would  disappear  be- 


THE    BILL-TOPPERS 


fore  the  eyes  of  the  audience,  in  the  star-strewn  sky.  All 
that  remained  was  to  get  everything  ready  for  the  final 
rehearsal:  the  complete  show,  with  all  lights  lit,  as  for 
a  gala  night.  Lily  seemed  to  see  it  all  beforehand.  On 
the  day  when  she  realized  that  no  accident  was  possible, 
that  it  was  a  trick  of  which  she  was  certain,  she  stifled 
a  cry  of  triumph  in  her  throat.  She  was  afraid  to  believe 
in  it  herself,  so  greatly  did  it  surpass  her  dreams.  She 
would  have  stayed  for  days  on  the  aerobike  to  expe- 
rience the  delight  of  the  leap  into  space.  It  seemed  to 
her  as  though  she  were  becoming  a  bird  and  about  to 
hover  in  mid-air  and  leave  them  all  behind  her,  in  the 
crowd  below  .  .  .  all,  all  ...  and  be  a  little 
Lily,  flying  away  on  the  back-wheel  before  their  noses. 

"You'll  make  yourself  ill,"  said  Jimmy.  "Take  a  rest ; 
there's  no  need  to  tire  yourself ;  you  do  it  as  well  as  I." 

For  Jimmy,  of  course,  had  done  the  thing  too,  if  only 
to  show  Lily;  besides,  it  was  easy  for  him,  who  had 
had  so  much  practice  in  London  and  who  knew  his 
machine  from  end  to  end.  And  he  appreciated  the  diffi- 
culty all  the  more.  He  admired  Lily's  incredible  pluck, 
her  all-devouring  ambition  and  that  splendid  determina- 
tion to  get  out  of  her  scrape,  to  be  a  little  Lily  earning 
her  bread  as  she  knew  how,  by  her  work,  even  if  she  had 
to  break  her  neck  in  the  doing  of  it !  And  proud  to  her 
finger-tips,  in  spite  of  the  dog's  life  she  had  led. 

"If  I  had  not  procured  her  this  delight,"  thought  Jim- 
my, "I  should  never  have  forgiven  myself  to  the  end  of 
my  days." 

And,  from  working  with  her  for  hours  and  hours,  from 
holding  her  by  the  waist  at  the  first  trials,  from  feeling 
that  little  body  quiver  under  his  hand,  from  seeing  Lily 
rush  at  danger,  Jimmy  became  madly  in  love  with  her 


AMONG    THE    STARS  339 

again  .  .  .  if  he  had  ever  ceased  to  be  so!  Ah,  if 
Trampy  .  .  .  !  But  Lily  was  married  ...  the 
divorce  depended  on  the  husband  .  .  .  and  the  hus- 
band wouldn't  have  it  ...  at  any  price:  not  for  a 
million,  he  said,  by  Jove,  would  he  be  separated  from  a 
little  wife  whom  he  adored ! 

"Poor  Lily !"  thought  Jimmy  sadly.  "Will  she  always 
be  doomed  to  drag  that  dead  weight  about  with  her  ?" 

During  the  intervals  for  rest,  while  Lily  wiped  the  per- 
spiration from  her  forehead,  Jimmy  talked  to  her  .  .  . 
at  first,  of  insignificant  things  .  .  .  the  name  "As- 
trarium,"  for  instance  ...  a  place  devoted  to  plan- 
ets, to  stars :  as  a  palmarium  is  to  palms.  Stars  .  .  . 
that  was  to  say,  bill-toppers:  the  Three  Graces;  the 
Laurences  ;  the  Lillians ;  the  Marjuttis ;  the  Lilies  .  .  . 
yes,  the  Lilies!  Then  he  pitied  her  for  belonging  to 
Trampy ;  and  what  a  good  little  Lily  she  would  have  been 
if  she  had  remained  with  her  family ! 

"But  I  am  a  good  little  Lily !"  she  said,  with  a  display 
of  childish  vehemence.  "What  more  do  you  want?  We 
artistes  do  what  we  jolly  well  please,  and  we  don't  care  a 
damn  for  the  rest !"  And  she  had  half  a  mind  to  tell  him 
that  it  was  all  his  fault !  "I  had  to  do  a  silly  thing  and  I 
did  it,"  she  continued,  with  an  expression  of  regret  on  her 
face.  "I  married  without  love,  but  lovers,  my !  I've  had, 
I  may  say,  as  many  as  I  wanted  .  .  .  from  the  son  of 
a  lord  down." 

And  Lily,  to  excite  him,  told  him  the  long  array  of  her 
love  affairs,  as  it  was  told  everywhere,  on  the  Bill  and 
Boom  Tour,  on  the  Harrasford,  on  the  Eastern  and  West- 
ern Tours,  like  the  whippings  and  the  rest. 

"Yes,  I  know,"  replied  Jimmy,  very  coldly. 

"What,  you  don't  believe  me !"  exclaimed  Lily.    "There 


340  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

were  men  who  would  have  left  wife  and  child  for  me! 
.  .  .  heaps  of  lovers,  tons  of  them !" 

"My  poor  Lily,  having  so  many  is  the  same  as  having 
none  at  all,"  added  Jimmy  dreamily. 

But  still  he  did  not  declare  his  love:  besides,  he  had 
constantly  to  leave  her,  to  go  and  give  orders,  or  climb  up 
on  the  roof,  or  look  at  the  heating-apparatus,  below. 

Lily  watched  him  go,  followed  him  with  a  sphinx-like 
glance,  while  a  vague  smile  flickered  about  her  lips.  .  .  . 

But  she  hardly  had  time  to  think  of  all  this :  the  assist- 
ants replaced  the  bird  in  its  cage,  locked  the  door,  opened 
that  leading  to  the  dressing-room  passage  and  the  artistes 
arrived  and  took  up  their  places  on  their  carpets. 

Lily  had  seen  it  a  hundred  times,  a  thousand  times, 
"millions  of  times !"  She  never  wearied  of  it.  She  spent 
the  day  there,  among  the  groups  of  bloomers :  the  Three 
Graces,  bare-armed,  went  to  work,  practised  the  human 
cluster;  Nunkie  kept  an  eye  on  his  dear  nieces  and  re- 
hearsed the  Bambinis,  now  that  old  Martello  was  keeping 
his  room  for  good.  Lily,  who  was  almost  reduced  to  eat- 
ing dry  bread,  but  who  remained  the  fine  lady  neverthe- 
less, brought  them  bags  of  sweets.  Calmed  by  her  work, 
she  sat  down  in  a  corner,  laughed,  her  head  thrown  back, 
full-throated,  applauded  the  others  with  her  thumb-nail, 
shook  hands  with  new-comers,  made  herself  liked  by  all. 
And  it  was : 

"Hullo,  girls!  Hullo,  boys!  Dear  old  Blackpool! 
What's  the  news  at  the  Palace?  Who's  topping  the  bill 
at  the  Hippodrome  ?" 

Lily,  on  her  rickety  chair,  made  as  it  were  a  little  center 
at  which  the  news  was  exchanged ;  to  think  that,  instead 
of  being  there,  at  the  top  of  the  profession,  she  might 
have  been  at  Glasgow,  some  twopenny  theater,  where 


AMONG   THE    STARS 

ladies  are  admitted  without  shoes  or  stockings,  or  playing 
the  darky  at  Earl's  Court !  Yes,  but  ,for  Jimmy,  that's 
where  she  would  have  been!  Or  else  the  Parisienne,  in 
Russia !  She,  an  English  girl,  my !  And  Lily  fervently 
touched  her  lucky  charm:  oh,  work,  work,  thank  good- 
ness for  it!  And  Lily  rendered  homage  to  work  and 
sprang  from  her  chair  to  shake  hands  with  Tom,  who 
had  come  to  see  his  palace  unpacked : 

"Good  morning,  Tom !    Welcome !" 

This  Tom,  who  now  topped  the  bill  everywhere  and 
had  a  permanent  address  and  his  own  scenery :  wasn't  it 
wonderful?  He  was  no  longer  her  Pa's  old  servant: 
genius  removes  all  distances;  a  man  is  what  he  makes 
himself !  And  they  shook  hands  warmly,  like  equals. 

Lily,  as  a  sensational  bill-topper  and  a  friend  of  Jim- 
my's, was  always  in  great  request.  She  talked  nicely, 
without  pose  of  any  kind,  like  a  woman  who  is  sure  of 
herself  and  knows  things.  The  Astrarium  .  .  .  the 
Astrarium  .  .  .  what  did  that  mean?  They  asked 
Lily: 

"It's  like  ...  a  palmarium,"  she  explained,  "with 
sunflowers  in  it,  all  sorts  of  things  .  .  .  girls  .  .  . 
stars  ..." 

She  described  her  journeys, storms, gee!  Weren't  there, 
Glass-Eye?  People  who  had  never  been  outside  Europe 
and  the  States  had  no  idea !  Lily  talked  of  India,  Africa, 
Australia ;  talked  of  lions,  which  stand  on  their  hind-legs 
when  they're  angry,  and  tigers,  which  lie  down  flat ;  men- 
tioned stage  friendships  between  elephants  and  camels 
and  herself  in  the  midst  of  it  all :  "That  high !"  lower- 
ing her  hand  to  six  inches  from  the  floor ;  talked  of  ani- 
mal-training:  dogs,  cats,  sea-lions  and  that  "great,  big, 
wicked  Australian  rabbit"  which  boxed  like  a  man.  She 


342  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

was  a  well-informed  person,  was  Lily.  And  a  providence 
for  her  family  also,  to  listen  to  her.  When  any  one 
brought  news  of  her  Pa  and  the  New  Trickers,  with 
Daisy  as  a  statue  on  her  pedestal,  one  of  the  successes  of 
the  year : 

"Yes,"  Lily  replied,  in  a  patronizing  tone,  "I  know. 
It  was  my  idea.  I  gave  it  to  them !" 

They  thought  it  very  nice  of  her.  She  listened  with 
great  dignity  to  what  they  said  about  the  New  Trickers. 
They  would  not  be  at  the  Astrarium  on  the  opening  night. 
They  were  finishing  an  engagement  on  the  Bill  and  Boom 
that  same  evening.  They  would  be  in  Paris  the  next  day. 
Mr.  Clifton  was  reckoning  on  this  appearance  for  the  final 
triumph  of  his  troupe  .  .  .  and  he  deserved  it  What 
a  man,  Mr.  Clifton,  what  a  man !  "Not  easy  to  please,  eh, 
Lily?"  And  the  inevitable  gesture  followed.  But  Lily 
would  have  none  of  that  now,  she  would  not  hear  her  Pa 
spoken  of  as  a  brute !  Did  they  take  her  for  a  performing 
dog?  One  was  born  with  the  gift  or  else  one  remained 
all  one's  life  a  Daisy  or  a  fat  freak !  She  was  proud  to 
have  a  Pa  like  hers.  She  wasn't  a  mountebank  picked 
up  on  the  road !  Lily  had  a  Pa  and  a  Ma :  a  Ma  of  her 
own,  a  Ma  whom  she  was  certain  about.  She  bore  a  well- 
known  name.  She  belonged  to  the  "father  and  son" 
aristocracy  of  the  music-hall.  She  had  never  needed 
"that"  to  make  her  practice,  she  an  artiste,  brought  up 
like  a  lady: 

"Wasn't  I,  Glass-Eye?    Tom,  wasn't  I?" 

And  the  jewelry  and  the  sweets  her  Pa  bought  her, 
my!  Tons  of  it!  Of  course,  he  would  stand  no  non- 
sense about  behavior ;  and  Lily  made  them  all  laugh  till 
the  tears  came  about  that  footy  rotter  who  made  love  to 
her  in  London,  before  the  time  when  drink  made  him 


AMONG    THE    STARS  343 

look  so  disgusting,  and,  when  she  loitered  in  the  street 
with  him,  Pa,  the  moment  she  reached  the  door,  caught 
her  such  a  blow  that  she  took  all  the  steps  to  the  base- 
ment at  one  jump;  and  there  found  her  Ma  waiting  for 
her  .  .  .  gee! 

"And  they  were  quite  right,  too!  And  ...  do 
they  know  that  I'm  going  to  top  the  bill  at  the  Astra- 
rium  ?"  she  asked. 

"No,  they  think  you're  in  Spain  or  somewhere." 

"Somewhere !"  said  Lily  to  herself,  with  a  thrill  at  her 
heart.  "I'll  show  them!" 

She  choked  with  joy  at  the  idea  of  the  startled  look 
on  the  faces  of  Pa  and  Ma  when  they  saw  her  on  the 
aerobike.  An  exuberant  gladness  filled  her  heart.  And 
that  feverish  work,  those  laborers  everywhere,  the  open- 
ing in  the  roof,  the  terrace  up  above,  those  posters  all 
over  Paris  and  there,  behind  the  iron  door,  in  the  dark, 
the  bird !  It  was  all  for  her :  a  theater  for  herself !  And 
she  felt  a  need  to  leap,  to  laugh,  to  spread  gaiety  all 
around  her ;  and  she  rushed  about  madly  with  the  Bam- 
binis,  romped  with  them  behind  the  pillars,  rolled  with 
them  on  the  floor  of  her  dressing-room,  became  once  again 
the  Lily  who  had  played  truant  all  around  the  world,  in- 
venting practical  jokes  in  India  and  climbing  apple-trees 
in  Honolulu.  She  crossed  the  combs  and  tooth-brushes 
on  the  Roofer  girls'  tables,  rushed  into  their  room  when 
they  were  undressed,  drove  the  trembling  herd  of  them 
distracted,  talked  of  the  thousand  dangers  that  awaited 
them  if  they  didn't  mend  their  ways,  made  them  fly  to 
their  lucky  charms  to  ward  off  ill-luck,  when  she  offered 
them  a  yellow  flower,  with  great  pomp,  or  some  broken 
glass  in  a  jewel-box.  Then  she  talked  to  the  Three 
Graces,  those  big  girls  who  always  astonished  her  with 


THE    BILL- TOPPERS 


their  cloistered  existence — Nunkie  before  everything — 
and  who  amused  themselves  by  measuring-  one  another 
round  the  biceps,  round  the  chest,  or  else,  with  their 
elbows  on  the  table,  played  at  who  should  first  bend  back 
the  other's  wrist.  Lily  sat  down  for  a  moment  with 

them,  then  stopped, 
breathless  with  lark- 
ing and  talking,  and 
went  back  to  her 
dressing-room : 

"I  shall  have 
months  to  spend  in 
here !"  she  thought. 

And,  assisted  b  y 
Glass-Eye,  she  pinned 
up  bits  of  stuff,  tied  a 
silk  bow  to  the  back  of 
the  chair,  put  up  nails 
for  her  costumes,  laid 
out  on  her  table  long 
rows  of  post-cards, 
photographs  of 
friends,  all  dispersed 
to  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  some  dead,  others  done 
for,  all  the  poor  witnesses  of  her  life.  Then  she  took  her 
black  gollywog  from  her  trunk  and  kissed  it  passionately 
— "Darling!  Darling!  Darling!" — before  hanging  it  up 
on  the  wall.  And  along  the  dressing-room  passage  and 
through  the  window  came  the  sound  of  voices  .  .  . 
snatches  of  homesick  tunes :  From  Rangoon  to  Man- 
datay  or  Way  down  upon  the  Suwanee  River  .  .  . 
and  "Hullo,  Lily!  Hullo,  old  boy!"  ...  The  fe- 
male-impersonator walked  into  her  room  as  though  it 


LILY'S  GOLLYWOG 


AMONG    THE    STARS  345 

were  his  own,  sat  down  on  the  basket  trunk,  plunging  his 
green  eyes  into  hers. 

And  sometimes  Jimmy  passed,  always  at  a  run :  some- 
thing had  gone  wrong  somewhere,  the  heating  apparatus, 
the  electric  light.  .  .  . 

"Hullo,  Lily !"  And  he  stopped  for  a  moment,  frowned 
at  the  sight  of  the  impersonator.  "Always  busy?"  he 
asked,  seeing  Lily,  bare-armed,  washing  something  in 
her  basin. 

"Have  to  be,"  said  Lily.  "I  always  wash  my  little 
blouses;  we  do  everything  ourselves,  don't  we,  Glass- 
Eye?  And,  when  I'm  performing,  I  have  two  pairs  of 
tights  to  wash  a  day !" 

"Two  pairs  of  tights !" 

"Why,  of  course,  matinee  and  night!  You  have  no 
idea,  Jimmy  ...  the  nickel  .  .  .  when  I  sit  on 
the  handle-bar,  it  makes  a  great  mark  .  .  .  just  here, 
look !" 

And  she  laughed  at  Jimmy  over  her  shoulder  while 
she  pointed  to  the  place  .  .  .  and  then  blushed,  like 
a  frolicsome  child  that  has  been  found  out  and  is,  oh,  so 
sorry ! 

"Every  one's  got  to  keep  to  his  own  dressing-room!" 
said  Jimmy,  feeling  very  uncomfortable,  to  the  man  with 
the  green  eyes.  "You  can't  stay  here;  it's  against  the 
rules!" 

"We're  doing  no  harm,  please,  Mr.  Jimmy,"  retorted 
Lily,  sitting  down  beside  the  impersonator  and  slipping 
her  arm  round  his  waist. 

"Poor  Jimmy !"  said  the  impersonator,  when  the  other 
had  left  the  room  in  a  rage.  "He's  jealous,  isn't  he, 
darling  ?" 

"He  jealous?     Then  why  doesn't  he  say  so?     One 


346  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

can't  guess  a  thing  like  that!  When  you're  a  man, 
you  speak  out !" 

And  the  architect  appeared  in  his  turn,  he,  too,  run- 
ning from  one  end  of  the  theater  to  the  other.  He  wore 
a  bandage  over  one  eye : 

"Knocked  up  against  a  beam  ...  a  little  accident. 
Have  you  seen  Jimmy  ?" 

"He's  over  there,  I  think,"  replied  Lily,  without  trou- 
bling to  look  at  him. 

There  was  no  jealousy  about  the  architect.  He  stayed 
for  a  moment,  sniffed  at  the  scent-bottle,  smiled  at  the 
photographs  on  the  wall.  A  green-eyed  impersonator,  a 
blue-eyed  impersonator :  the  room  could  have  been  full  of 
impersonators,  for  all  he  cared.  Dark  girls,  yellow  girls, 
fair  girls,  so  many  playthings  to  distract  him  from  his 
rules  and  compasses.  He  was  bored  at  once ;  turned  to 
another  at  once ;  and  it  was  all  so  amusing !  He  was  the 
typical  lover  of  the  woman  of  the  stage,  with  his  little 
surface  passions.  And  very  amiable  withal,  knowing 
them  all,  and  friendly  with  them,  a  great  purveyor  of 
anecdotes : 

"The  Para-Paras,  you  know,  Lily,  committed  suicide 
in  their  room  .  .  .  awful  poverty.  The  wife  wasn't 
.  .  .  Tottie  enough  .  .  .  and  the  husband  was 
teaching  the  English  accent  to  continental  clowns !  Po- 
land? A  magnificent  engagement  in  Russia.  Old  Mar- 
tello  hasn't  three  days  to  live.  Oh  .  .  .  and 
Nunkie!  There's  news  among  the  Three  Graces!  The 
troupe's  done  for  this  time !" 

And  he  told  how,  last  night,  poor  Thea,  while  mend- 
ing her  uncle's  overcoat,  found  in  the  lining  an  old  letter 
from  America  .  from  some  swain  she  had  had 


AMONG    THE    STARS  347 

over  there  ...  a  letter  glowing  with  love  and  regret. 
Yes,  Nunkie  knew  how  to  hold  his  nieces,  the  architect 
explained,  laughing  .  .  .  watched  them  like  a  Span- 
ish duenna,  confiscated  the  letters  that  came  for  them,  if 
necessary,  the  old  rogue,  and  calmed  their  ardors  with  a 
few  drops  of  bromide  in  a  glass  of  water,  every  evening, 
on  the  pretense  of  keeping  them  from  catching  cold  in  the 
drafts.  Oh,  the  old  rogue !  And  Thea  had  almost  fainted 
with  grief  in  her  dressing-room  when  she  read  the  letter. 

"Quite  a  business,  Lily !  A  scandal  in  their  little  home ! 
Very  funny,  eh?"  he  added,  as  he  ogled  Lily's  pigeon's 
eggs  and  rolled  a  cigarette. 

Lily,  who  had  seen  poor  Thea  cry  before  and  who 
knew  to  what  extent  her  lover's  treachery  had  humiliated 
her,  was  secretly  furious  to  hear  that  josser  talk  carelessly 
of  things  like  that:  did  he  imagine,  the  idiot,  that  they 
weren't  built  like  other  people,  in  the  profession,  that  they 
had  no  feelings?  What  need  had  the  public  to  know 
about  their  lives  ?  It  was  among  themselves,  quite  among 
themselves,  all  that! 

"Get  out  of  my  sight,  you  damned  josser!"  said  Lily. 
"Go  and  eat  coke !" 

But  the  other,  greatly  amused,  described  his  latest 
discovery,  a  pearl,  in  an  out-of-the-way  neighborhood 
...  at  Vaugirard  fair  ...  an  extraordinary  girl, 
showing  off  on  a  couple  of  trestles  in  front  of  a  canvas 
booth,  in  which  her  man  lifted  weights  to  the  light  of  the 
Argand  burners : 

"Picture  this  girl,  Lily,"  said  the  enthusiastic  josser, 
"picture  this  girl  on  her  trestles,  doing  weights,  balan- 
cings, all  sorts  of  things.  A  body  like  a  boy's,  all  muscle, 
and  thin:  whew!  Not  that  much  fat  on  her,  no  hips, 


348  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

arms  and  shoulders,  like  Michael  Angelo's  flayed  model. 
And  I  talked  to  her  afterward!  And  her  man  gave  me 
a  queer  look  you  know  ...  I  got  a  blow  ..." 

"Well  done!"  cried  Lily,  clapping  her  hands.  "The 
beam,  eh?  That'll  teach  you  to  meddle  in  other  people's 
business!  Oh,  you  don't  know  those  tenters!  One  of 
these  days  you'll  be  picked  up  with  your  face  smashed  in, 
or  shot  through  the  chest  with  a  revolver." 

"I  say,  though,"  the  architect  interrupted,  "that  girl 
.  .  .  I  don't  know  how  we  came  to  speak  of  you 
.  .  .  she  knows  you,  Lily !" 

"That's  right!  Now  I  have  mountebanks  among  my 
acquaintances !"  said  Lily,  with  an  air  of  disgust.  "Get 
out  of  this,  I  say !  .  .  You  wanted  Jimmy ;  there 
he  is,  look !" 

And  Lily,  furious,  jerked  her  head  toward  the  passage. 

When  Lily  went  home  again  she  did  not  even  think  of 
what  she  had  just  heard.  The  death  of  the  Paras ;  the 
Graces  .  .  .  Nunkie,  that  old  rogue!  .  .  .  She 
forgot  all  about  it.  ...  She  saw  only  that:  the 
theater,  the  aerobike,  the  theater!  Ah!  she  had  it  in 
her  blood,  in  spite  of  those  ugly  stories !  Even  outside, 
when,  upon  Jimmy's  advice,  she  went  to  take  the  air  in 
the  parks,  under  the  great  blue  sky,  she  regretted  the  dark 
stage,  the  canvas  landscapes  of  the  back-drops ;  the  open- 
air  scenery  appeared  paltry  to  her,  beside  it.  Between 
her  and  nature  there  was  always  the  aerobike !  In  a  few 
days  .  .  .  was  it  possible?  She  clenched  her  little 
hands  over  an  imaginary  handle-bar,  hardened  her  pig- 
eon's eggs,  made  pedaling  movements,  in  spite  of  herself, 
on  the  floor  of  the  tram-car  which  she  very  soon  took  to 
get  back  to  the  theater  again!  It  was  her  life,  her  joy, 
her  suffering,  her  good  and  evil  ...  it  was  her  field, 


AMONG    THE    STARS  349 

her  very  own  field,  the  field  which  she  had  sown  with 
sweat  that  she  might  reap  fame  and  glory. 

And,  when  she  returned,  she  reveled  in  that  smell  of 
hot  glue  and  tar  and  scent ;  oh,  it  was  much  nicer  than 
the  country!  And  more  interesting,  too:  all  the  little 
drama  that  was  being  enacted  among  the  Graces,  for  in- 
stance ;  Nunkie  had  lost  his  wonderful  reputation,  he  was 
surrounded  with  less  reverence;  the  story  of  the  confis- 
cated letters  was  beginning  its  round  of  the  world.  It 
was  all  very  well  for  him  to  spoil  his  dear  girls,  to  double 
his  attentions,  to  treble  the  doses  of  bromide ;  there  was 
no  doubt  about  it,  the  troupe's  days  were  numbered.  The 
boy-violinist  and  others  were  making  love  to  the  Three 
Graces,  fresh  troupes  were  being  formed,  three  more, 
any  number!  And  they  all  talked  freely,  turned  their 
backs  without  hesitation  upon  Nunkie,  who  was  prowling 
round : 

"Well?"  he  asked.    "What's  the  mystery?" 

"We  were  discussing  marriage,  Nunkie,"  the  Graces 
answered. 

"That's  right,  my  children,"  he  replied,  with  a  sigh. 

Lily,  in  all  these  plots  and  counter-plots,  knew  how  to 
remain  neuter  and  to  be  very  nice  to  everybody ;  she  had 
been  trained  from  childhood  to  keep  her  opinions  to  her- 
self; none  of  her  damned  business,  all  that;  something 
that  might  have  been  foreseen  and  expected  .  .  .  like 
the  death  of  old  Martello,  which  Jimmy  told  her  of. 
.  .  .  Yes,  the  old  man  had  flickered  out  in  his  bed  just 
like  that.  .  .  . 

But  she  needed  all  her  composure,  indeed,  when  Jimmy 
told  her  that  those  dear  little  Bambinis  ...  ah,  there 
was  bad  news  for  them,  the  poor  loves ! 

"What?    What?"  asked  Lily. 


350  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"Well,  we  are  going  to  lose  them ;  they've  been  claimed 
by  their  brother,  it  seems." 

"What!"  cried  Lily.  "Their  brother?  The  ... 
the  Mexican  one  ?" 

"Yes,  I  think  so,"  said  Jimmy.  "He's  come  back  from 
South  America.  He  is  in  Paris  now  .  .  .  somewhere 
in  a  penny  show,  in  the  suburbs  ...  I  don't  know 
where  .  .  .  with  a  girl." 

"With  a  girl!"  thought  Lily. 

Everything  returned  to  her  in  a  flash !  The  girl  with 
the  bruised  skin  .  .  .  that  boy's  body  all  muscle 
.  .  .  Ave  Maria!  Ave  Maria!  Not  dead!  She  felt 
inclined  to  run  up  to  Trampy,  to  fly  at  his  throat,  to  bel- 
low in  his  face  that  Ave  Maria  was  here,  just  to  see  the 
effect!  But  she  restrained  herself.  Suppose  it  were 
not  true  ?  Oh,  she  would  soon  know !  That  footy  rotter, 
if  it  were  true !  O  God,  grant  that  it  might  be  true ! 

All  this  passed  through  her  brain  in  less  than  a  second. 

"Why  1"  said  Jimmy,  seeing  her  turn  pale.  "Does  that 
affect  you  so  much  .  .  .  the  loss  of  your  little 
friends,  the  Bambinis?  For  you're  going  to  lose 
them.  .  .  ." 

"No,  Jimmy !"  she  replied  indignantly.  "You  shall  not 
give  up  the  Bambinis  to  their  brother,  a  cruel,  cowardly 
brute  like  that,  right  at  the  bottom  of  the  profession.  I 
know  .  .  .  I've  seen.  .  .  .  You  shan't  do  it, 
Jimmy,  and,  look  here,  I  forbid  you !" 

"Well,  Lily,  Lily,  I'll  do  what  I  can,  to  please  you,  you 
know;  I'll  try;  I'll  see  the  police;  you  must  give  your 
evidence,  if  you  have  anything  to  say.  Do  you  know, 
Lily,  you  are  as  good  as  gold.  You're  a  good  little  Lily : 
hard  upon  herself  and  kind  to  others." 

But  he  was  interrupted     ,     .     .     Jimmy  here,  Jimmy 


AMONG   THE    STARS  351 

there  ...  he  was  wanted  .  .  .  for  the  flies,  for 
the  roof.  .  .  .  Jimmy  flew  to  the  stage,  bothered  on 
every  side,  worried  by  the  Astrarium  .  .  .  and  Lily. 
Lily !  He  could  not  escape  her  now,  do  what  he  might ! 
He  had  her  in  his  heart,  in  his  brain,  everywhere.  She 
lived  and  existed  in  his  breast,  shot  up  there  like  a  flame ! 
Whatever  he  had  been  told  about  her  he  no  longer  knew, 
did  not  want  to  know.  And,  besides,  even  if  it  had  been 
true,  oh,  he  would  have  forgiven  everything!  He  would 
have  passed  over  everything!  He  would  have  plunged 
into  the  abyss  to  get  Lily  out  of  it,  whatever  she  had 
done ;  yes !  In  spite  of  everything !  in  spite  of  everybody ! 
In  spite  of  Trampy,  husband  or  not ! 


CHAPTER  III 

To-morrow  was  to  be  the  great  day,  the  opening  of  the 
Astrarium,  the  first  night ;  and  Jimmy,  more  bustled  than 
ever,  forgot  Lily  .  .  .  almost  ...  on  that  evening, 
especially,  the  evening  of  the  dress-rehearsal :  not  an 
ordinary  rehearsal,  with  the  band-parts  handed  to  the 
conductor  across  the  footlights — "A  march  here,  pleasr>, 
a  waltz  there.  'K  you" — no,  the  whole  show,  with 
orchestra  and  all  complete ;  the  stage  flooded  with  light ; 
each  turn  in  its  own  setting:  corridor,  wood,  room, 
palace.  Jimmy  multiplied  himself  in  the  final  fever. 
The  theater,  arranged  according  to  his  ideas,  was  still  en- 
cumbered with  ladders  and  scaffoldings ;  but  gangs  of 
laborers  were  hard  at  work  on  every  side.  The  obstruc- 
tions all  disappeared  like  magic,  were  juggled  away. 
Jimmy  had  made  sure  that  the  roof  was  ready ;  he  had  run 
from  the  landing-point,  out  of  sight  of  the  audience, 
through  the  door  contrived  in  the  wall  of  the  stage, 
crossed  the  fly-galleries,  come  down  by  the  pulley-rope; 
the  whole  thing,  from  roof  to  stage,  had  taken  him,  watch 
in  hand,  thirty  seconds.  And  Lily  had  done  it  also.  It 
formed  part  of  the  turn,  a  sensational  addition  to  the  aero- 
bike.  All  would  be  ready,  all  would  go  well,  provided 
that  Lily  was  not  nervous  that  evening  .  .  .  and  to- 
morrow especially !  Those  confounded  crazy  little  girls ! 
Crazy  every  one  of  them :  Laurence  herself,  the  bravest  of 
the  lot,  had  just  had  an  awful  fall,  at  Boston,  in  her  ex- 

352 


AMONG   THE   STARS  353 

citement  at  losing  her  lucky  charm.  It  was  the  event  in 
the  profession,  the  accident  of  the  day.  Lily  might  be 
frightened  by  it.  Now  it  was  essential  that  she  should 
succeed  and  succeed  at  the  first  attempt.  His  fortune  and 
hers,  his  future,  the  success  of  the  Astrarium  depended 
on  it.  And  Jimmy,  obsessed  by  his  labors,  had  hardly 
time  to  think  of  Trampy,  in  the  formidable  effort  of  the 
eleventh  hour.  And  yet,  sometimes,  he  felt  a  pain  at  his 
heart.  That  adorable  Lily !  Would  he  succeed  in  making 
her  love  him?  And  now  there  was  that  impersonator! 
Oh,  to  work,  to  work !  And  he  went  at  it,  hammer  and 
tongs,  to  make  sure  of  the  aerobike's  success.  To  make 
them  talk  of  him  ...  to  achieve  fame  .  .  . 
which  was  as  sweet  as  love!  And  he  was  wanted  from 
one  end  of  the  theater  to  the  other.  Oh,  he  might  well 
look  upon  the  Astrarium  as  his  creation !  Already,  a  few 
days  before,  rumors  of  a  strike  were  current.  The  man- 
agers were  boycotted  by  the  artistes,  in  England.  .  .  . 
Jimmy  feared  lest  the  Astrarium  should  feel  the  conse- 
quences, under  the  pressure  of  the  Performers' Association, 
but  he  had  arranged  everything,  seen  each  artiste  separate- 
ly, explained  his  plans:  gala  matinees,  creation  of  an 
asylum,  a  home  of  rest  ...  a  glory  to  help  in  such  a 
task  .  .  .  who  could  tell  but  that  they  were  working  for 
themselves  by  adding  their  stone  to  the  edifice?  He 
quoted  the  Para-Paras  and  their  wretched  end ;  old  Mar- 
tello,  dead  without  leaving  a  penny ;  the  Bambinis,  home- 
less; Ave  Maria,  unprotected.  The  men  listened,  with 
serious  faces.  As  for  the  girls,  his  words  came  straight 
from  the  heart.  Those  decent  girls,  who  earned  their 
living  as  they  knew  how  and  the  living  of  others  besides, 
they  understood  him  at  once ;  and  Lily  no  longer  laughed ; 
on  the  contrary: 


354  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"Me  ?  Whatever  you  like !  For  nothing,  if  you  like  ; 
rely  on  me,  Jimmy !" 

And  now  the  hour  had  come ;  they  were  to  appear  un- 
der the  critical  eye  of  Harrasford.  The  acting-manager 
had  arrived  from  England  that  same  day  with  the  stage- 
manager,  who  was  "behind."  It  made  a  strange  im- 
pression, that  huge  red-and-gold  house,  glittering  with 
light  and  sounding  curiously  empty  to  the  thunder  of 
the  band.  Everybody  was  at  his  post:  the  tall  flunkeys 
'  stood  motionless  at  the  entrance-doors,  in  the  promenades, 
as  if  the  audience  had  been  there,  whereas  there  was 
practically  nobody  except  Harrasford  and  the  manager. 
And  on  the  stage,  which  had  been  cleared  of  every  super- 
fluous piece  of  property,  splendid  order  reigned :  the 
scene-shifters,  up  above,  had  their  hands  on  the  wind- 
lasses; the  two  electricians,  on  their  perches,  turned  the 
limelight  where  it  was  to  fall ;  the  drops  rose  and  fell 
without  a  hitch;  the  scenes  slipped  into  their  places, 
shifted,  in  the  English  fashion,  by  one  man.  For  each 
turn  on  the  stage,  the  next  was  ready  to  come  on,  no 
more ;  all  the  rest  were  in  the  dressing-rooms.  But  there, 
behind  the  iron  curtain,  one  could  picture  staircases 
crowded  with  people  running  up  and  down,  passages 
full  of  light,  a  flurried  ant-hill,  and  feel  that  a  ring  of 
bells  would  be  enough  to  bring  tumbling  on  to  the  stage 
a  whole  glittering,  grotesque  or  radiant  world  of  people, 
from  the  monkey-faced  comedian  to  Lily,  in  her  pink 
tights,  an  image  of  Venus.  There  was  electricity  in  the 
air  of  that  empty  house,  in  which  all  felt  the  presence 
of  the  powerful  master,  harder  to  please  than  a  crowd ! 
And  rays  of  light  ran  along  the  stage,  the  back-drop 
seemed  a  cloud  ready  to  split  in  the  crash  of  the  thunder, 
under  the  storm  of  the  raging  brasses.  On  the  stage, 


AMONG    THE    STARS  355 

the  turns  defiled  in  their  order,  under  the  shimmering 
lights:  the  Bambinis,  brother  and  sister,  supple  grace 
and  strength  combined,  filled  the  huge  space  with  the 
free  play  of  their  rosy  bodies  and  the  brightness  of  their 
genuine  gaiety.  The  Three  Graces  formed  the  human 
cluster,  a  hanging  group  of  faces,  figures,  shoulders  and 
glorious  lines.  The  program  poured  out  laughter,  har- 
mony, beauty,  till,  against  the  blue  forest,  came  the  scar- 
let step-dances  of  the  Roofers.  And  then  silence:  the 
feature  of  the  evening,  the  aerobike !  There  was  a  mo- 
ment's anxiety.  A  net  was  stretched  above  the  stalls, 
from  the  footlights  to  the  opening  in  the  roof.  For  the 
audience,  at  any  rate,  all  danger  was  removed,  even  in 
case  of  a  fall.  Then  the  glass  dome  above  opened,  and 
the  curtain  rose  on  the  Elysian  glimmer  of  a  scene 
studded  with  stars ;  and  everything  was  empty,  stage  and 
auditorium.  The  distance  seemed  immense :  "miles  and 
miles!"  The  machine  was  to  start  out  suddenly,  rush 
through  space,  disappear  up  above,  like  a  meteor  that 
shoots  out  from  infinity  and  returns  to  it. 

A  few  seconds  passed,  during  which  Jimmy  gave  Lily 
her  last  instructions : 

"You're  not  afraid,  Lily?  Would  you  like  me  to  do  it?" 

Afraid!  She  turned  her  calm  face  to  him.  Oh,  she 
could  have  accomplished  impossible  and  cruel  things, 
braved  torture,  walked  on  burning  coals!  She  felt  her- 
self made  of  supple  steel,  unerring  and  exact : 

"Up,  quick,  quick !    Ready,  Jimmy?" 

"Ready!" 

"Then    .    .    .    GO!" 

The  aerobike  flashed  like  an  arrow  from  the  bow, 
raised  itself  with  a  magnificent  jerk;  the  propeller 
hummed  like  a  thunder-bolt,  the  wings  rustled  in  flight, 


356  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

pointed  toward  the  opening,  went  up  ...  up  ... 
up.  .  .  disappeared  in  the  star-strewn  sky.  .  .  . 
It  was  done !  The  band  struck  up  the  triumphal  march, 
Harrasford,  the  manager,  the  few  who  were  present  all 
burst  into  cheers ;  and,  suddenly,  over  the  house  plunged 
in  darkness,  from  the  back  of  the  stage,  came  a  burst  of 
light.  Lily,  after  running  over  the  roof  and  sliding 
down  the  pulley,  was  descending  against  the  blue  back- 
drop, bringing  with  her  the  star!  First,  one  saw  the 
light  breaking,  then  swelling  and  increasing  in  brilliancy, 
and  Lily  appeared,  a  starry  Eve,  holding,  in  her  upraised 
hand,  a  dazzling  luminary,  a  crystal  globe,  which  an  in- 
visible wire  from  behind  filled  with  an  intensity  of  light. 
And  powerful  rays  shot  to  every  side,  end-of-the-world 
coruscations,  above  the  crater  of  the  orchestra. 

"Splendid !"  cried  Harrasford.  "That  dishes  the  water- 
spouts at  the  Hippodrome,  the  avalanches,  everything!" 
And,  as  Jimmy  came  up,  "Good  boy,  Jimmy!"  he  said, 
catching  him  a  great  smack  on  the  shoulder  by  way  of  a 
compliment.  "And  your  girl  .  .  .  your  .  .  . 
Maggy  .  .  .  your  .  .  .  what's  her  name?  Lily 
.  .  .  glorious!  Very  good  indeed!  Couldn't  be  bet- 
ter !  Capital  idea !" 

He  gave  a  quick  glance  at  his  watch,  a  few  words  to 
Jimmy,  to  the  manager,  over  his  shoulder,  on  the  wing : 

"All  the  boxes  booked  three  weeks  ahead?  All  the 
stalls?  That's  right!  Good-by,  good  luck  1" 

Already  his  broad  back  was  disappearing  through  the 
door ;  had  to  catch  the  midnight  train  for  Cologne ;  pres- 
ence indispensable. 

"Telephone  to-morrow;  let  me  know  how  things  go. 
Ta-ta!" 

And  Harrasford  was  far  away. 


Powerful  rays  shot  out  to  every  side      Page  356 


AMONG   THE    STARS  357 

And  Lily?  Lily  was  in  her  dressing-room,  stupefied 
with  delight.  How  soon  it  was  done!  How  simple  it 
was !  Jimmy,  after  all,  with  his  scrawls  and  his  scribbles, 
with  his  brain-work:  what  a  discovery  he  had  made! 
She  would  have  liked  it  to  last  for  ever,  the  flight  on  the 
aerobike ;  she  still  seemed  to  be  rushing  up  to  the  stars, 
to  feel  the  coolness  of  the  night  on  her  face.  How  funny 
it  was,  going  up,  up,  up  and  out  through  that  hole.  She 
was  still  laughing  at  it,  with  little  convulsive  movements 
of  the  shoulders,  and  stammering  out  things. 

When  she  was  dressed,  she  received  Jimmy's  congratu- 
lations and  everybody's.  They  gave  her  a  bouquet : 

"To  our  little  favorite !" 

She  answered,  without  knowing  what  she  said;  went 
home.  Everything  seemed  to  be  turning  round  and 
round.  She  ate  a  few  mouth  fuls,  washed  down  with  a 
glass  of  milk ;  and  then,  suddenly,  made  a  rush  for  Glass- 
Eye  !  A  pillow  fight  followed : 

"Here,  take  that !    Take  that!    And  that!    And  that!" 

Ten  minutes  of  an  epic  struggle,  on  the  bed  thrown 
into  confusion  and  disorder,  as  after  a  murder;  huge 
slaps  on  the  firm,  rounded  forms ;  virile  smackings ;  and 
Glass-Eye,  breathlessly,  had  to  own  herself  beaten,  to  beg 
for  mercy. 

"That'll  teach  them!"  cried  Lily,  falling  on  the  bed, 
panting,  drunk  with  joy,  drunk  with  joy!  Trampy, 
Mexico,  Ma's  insults,  the  jealousies,  the  grudges,  Daisy, 
the  fat  freaks :  pooh,  none  of  that  existed  for  her !  Noth- 
ing remained  but  herself,  drunk  with  an  immense  joy! 
She  was  almost  delirious,  in  the  excess  of  her  great  hap- 
piness : 

"I'll  smash  up  their  damned  troupes,  do  you  hear, 
Glass-Eye?  There!  Like  that!"  And  she  tried  to  re- 


358  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

new  the  fight,  but  her  strength  failed  her.  "Dished  and 
done  for,  their  damned  troupes!" 

And  she  laughed,  she  burst  with  laughing,  when  she 
thought  of  their  eighteen  feet  of  stage : 

"Stages  as  big  as  my  hand,  Glass-Eye,  is  what  they've 
got  to  turn  in !" 

Whereas,  she  went  straight  up  in  the  air,  up  to  the 
stars,  miles  high,  up  above  everything !  Bang !  A  smack 
for  Glass- Eye,  who  was  just  taking  off  her  skirt! 

"And  I  say,  Glass-Eye!  Ma,  who  said  that  I  .  .  . 
you  know  what  she  said !  But  wait  till  they  see  me  in  my 
grand  dresses !  I'll  order  them  to-morrow ;  and  my  hats 
too.  And  I'll  invite  Pa  and  Ma  to  the  hotel !  And  we'll 
drink  champagne  and  I'll  have  fifty  francs'  worth  of 
flowers  on  the  table,  just  to  show  them !  'Our  Lily,'  that's 
what  I'm  going  to  be,  'our  own  Lily,'  damn  it !" 

Lily,  when  she  was  in  bed,  turned  things  over  and 
over  in  her  brain.  Yes,  her  Pa  was  quite  right.  It  was 
for  her  good,  for  her  own  good !  Big  salaries,  which 
would  all  belong  to  her!  And  no  more  performing- 
dog  toques,  but  big  hats  and  feathers  and  motor-cars 
and  furs,  but  no  goggles !  No,  she  must  find  something 
that  wouldn't  hide  her  face,  so  that  people  would  recog- 
nize her  and  say : 

"That's  Lily !" 

And  the  road  behind  her  motor  would  be  strewn  with 
the  bodies  of  pros  who  had  died  of  jealousy! 

And  she  would  consult  Pa  and  Ma  on  the  color  of  her 
liveries,  on  her  crest:  a  wheel,  with  wings  to  it!  And 
Lily  dropped  off  into  a  sleep  interrupted  by  awful  night- 
mares, in  which  Ma  was  dead — poor  Ma! — before  wit- 
nessing her  triumph — and  in  which  elephants  trumpeted 
in  her  honor  and  sea-lions  applauded  her  with  their  finny 


AMONG   THE   STARS  359 

fore-paws,  all  along  a  queer  sort  of  Tottenham  Court 
Road,  paved  with  fat  freaks,  at  the  end  of  which  a  Horse 
Shoe,  as  big  as  the  Marble  Arch,  opened  out  upon  the 
stars. 

Poor  Glass-Eye,  on  her  side,  had  the  most  outlandish 
dreams.  Her  brain  was  turned  from  living  in  the  midst 
of  all  that.  She  dreamed  that  she  was  flying,  too;  that 
she  was  Lily  in  her  turn;  that  she  was  soaring  over 
Whitechapel ;  but,  from  time  to  time,  a  nervous  kick  from 
Lily  recalled  her  to  the  realities  of  life. 

"Glass-Eye !  There's  a  knock  at  the  door,  I  think.  Or 
else  I'm  dreaming.  What's  the  time  ?  Ten  o'clock.  Get 
up,  Glass-Eye !  If  it's  the  landlady,  tell  her  I'll  pay  her 
next  week !" 

But  Glass-Eye,  who  had  gone  to  the  door,  shut  it  sud- 
denly and  came  back  to  Lily,  looking  quite  startled : 

"Miss  Lily,  there's  some  one,  all  in  black,  on  the  stairs ; 
a  ghost !" 

"If  you're  trying  to  frighten  me,"  cried  Lily,  jumping 
out  of  bed,  "I'll  knock  your  other  eye  out!  Take  care!" 

She  was  choking  with  excitement.  Lily  was  afraid  of 
nothing.  But  those  confounded  ghosts:  poor  Ma,  per- 
haps! And  she  quickly  separated  two  fingers  wide  be- 
hind her  back,  so  as  to  be  on  the  safe  side  and  ward  off 
ill-luck: 

"Gome  with  me,  Glass-Eye ;  you  go  first !" 

And  Lily,  in  her  night-dress,  half-opened  the  door, 
looked  out. 

A  thin  woman,  all  in  black,  stood  motionless.  It  was 
not  Ma.  Lily  breathed  more  freely : 

"What  do  you  want?"  she  asked. 

"I  want  to  speak  to  Miss  Lily,"  said  the  woman  in 


360  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

black.  "I  went  to  the  theater  and  they  gave  me  your 
address.  I  came.  ...  I  suppose  you  don't  remem- 
ber me,  it's  so  long  ago.  Ave  Maria,  on  the  wire  in 
Mexico  ?" 

"Ave  Maria !  Come  in,"  said  Lily. 

Ave  Maria,  whom  she  had  sought  for  so  long.  She 
would  know  at  last!  Oh,  if  it  were  true!  God  grant 
that  it  might  be  true!  Lily,  hardly  recovered  from  her 
fright,  quivered  at  the  thought.  And  she  devoured  Ave 
Maria  with  her  eyes.  She  recognized  her,  now  that  she 
knew :  it  was  she  indeed,  but  grown  old  before  her  time, 
looking  wretched,  thin,  hollow-eyed,  a  face  all  skin  and 
bone.  And  the  two  stood  contemplating  each  other  in 
silence. 

"How  pretty  youVe  grown!"  whispered  Ave  Maria 
timidly.  "No  one  would  take  you  for  a  professional." 

But  a  sudden  fit  of  coughing  brought  scarlet  patches 
to  her  pale  cheeks. 

"It  catches  me  here,"  she  said,  pressing  her  hand  to 
her  chest.  "It's  damp,  sometimes,  in  the  tent.  And  then 
half -naked  on  those  trestles.  The  work  warms  one,  it's 
true.  The  other  night  I  saw  some  one  who  knew  you, 
a  gentleman.  I  should  have  liked  to  ask  him  more,  but 
my  brother  struck  him  in  the  face.  I  got  my  turn  after. 
However,  I  wanted  to  see  you.  I  went  to  the  Astrarium. 
I  asked  them." 

"Go  on,"  said  Lily,  who  was  burning  to  know,  but  did 
not  want  to  show  it.  "Glass-Eye,  give  me  my  dressing- 
gown.  Go  on,  please !" 

"I  don't  know  that  I  dare,"  said  Ave  Maria,  "now  that 
I  have  seen  you.  You  are  so  much  better-looking  than 
I  am.  Are  you  still  living  with  him?"  she  asked,  in  a 
low  voice,  fixing  two  fiery  eyes  on  Lily. 


AMONG   THE    STARS  361 

"No,"  said  Lily,  "I  am  living  with  nobody !" 

"But  they  told  me.  I  heard  at  Buenos  Ayres  .  .  . 
the  story  of  the  whippings,  your  running  away  with 
him  ..." 

"What  whippings?  And  I'm  living  with  nobody!"  re- 
torted Lily,  very  haughtily. 

"But  you  have  lived  with  him  ...  in  Germany 
.  .  .  Trampy,  you  know." 

"No,"  said  Lily,  "I  was  married,  wasn't  I,  Glass-Eye?" 

"But  I'm  married  to  him!"  Ave  Maria  broke  in,  more 
aggressively  than  before. 

"Oh,  if  it  were  true!"  thought  Lily.  "Oh,  if  it  were 
true!" 

She  dared  not  believe  it,  it  would  have  been  too  beauti- 
ful, beautiful  beyond  dreams.  And,  with  her  nerves 
stretching  to  breaking-point: 

"Prove  it !"  she  said  coldly,  to  Ave  Maria. 

"Yes,  I  have  my  proofs,"  replied  Ave  Maria,  shaken 
with  a  furious  cough.  "And  I'll  show  them!  Trampy 
belongs  to  me,  not  to  you!  He's  in  Paris,  they  tell 
me  .  .  .  And  I  mean  to  have  him,  do  you  hear? 
I've  suffered  enough  and  to  spare.  I've  done  every- 
thing since  he  left  me.  Look  here,  at  Caracas  peo- 
ple used  to  offer  me  twopence  to  let  them  black  my  eye, 
sometimes,  when  my  brother  was  locked  up  at  the  police- 
station.  And  there  were  the  one-horse  circuses  where  we 
slept  in  a  heap  on  the  straw,  in  Chili  or  some  such  coun- 
try. And,  sometimes,  I  lost  my  balance  on  the  wire,  be- 
cause of  my  cough.  And  my  brother:  you  know  him! 
And  the  cattle-men,  when  they're  drunk!  One  of  them 
stabbed  me  here,  with  a  knife,  there,  here,  in  the  breast ; 
they  had  to  cut  it  off — the  breast — later,  at  Montevideo, 
because  of  the  gangrene.  Yes,  he  stabbed  me  with  a  knife, 


362  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

because  I  wouldn't  say,  'I  love  you,'  to  him!  Fancy  my 
saying,  'I  love  you/  to  any  one  but  Trampy !  Never !  I 
would  have  let  them  jump  on  my  chest  with  their  hob- 
nailed boots  first !  And,  now  that  Trampy's  here,  I  want 
him !  He  belongs  to  me  and  I  mean  to  have  him." 

"Well,  take  him,  if  he  belongs  to  you !"  said  Lily.  "I 
don't  care  a  hang  for  your  Trampy ;  I've  turned  him  out 
long  ago !" 

"So  .  .  .  it's  true?  If  he's  no  longer  with  you,  I 
can  have  him  again.  I  shall  have  him!  I'll  have  my 
brother  locked  up,  if  necessary,  to  be  free !  I  have  only 
to  say  a  word,  not  because  of  the  story  of  that  nose  which 
he  bit  off  at  Rio:  no,  the  other  day,  at  Vaugirard,  he 
used  the  knife.  I'll  tell  everything,  to  have  my  Trampy 
back." 

And  her  rough  voice  became  gentle  now,  in  her  Anglo- 
Italian  jargon,  with  a  dash  of  Spanish  in  it;  everything 
became  clear,  everything  yielded  before  the  violence  of 
that  fierce  love.  Lily  was  astounded  to  hear  it : 

"That's  what  I  call  love!"  she  thought.  "I  had  no 
idea,  my !  And  all  for  Trampy !  It's  worse  than  in  the 
novels." 

And  she  was  touched,  in  spite  of  herself,  and,  when 
Ave  Maria  cried,  "Oh,  how  happy  you  must  be,  if  he 
loves  you!"  Lily  dared  not  protest  that  she  didn't  care 
a  hang  for  that  soaker,  for  fear  of  hurting  the  poor 
martyr.  She  replied,  on  the  contrary,  that  Trampy  was 
very  nice,  but  that  he  was  hers  no  longer,  that  he  be- 
longed to  Ave  Maria,  since  Ave  Maria  had  the  proofs 
.  .  .  if  she  had  the  proofs. 

"I  have  them  here,  Miss  Lily,  my  marriage-lines.  I 
was  able  to  get  them,  after  he  went.  I  had  the  certificate 


AMONG   THE    STARS  363 

witnessed.  My  brother,  when  he  came  to  fetch  me,  never 
knew  about  it.  I  sewed  it  into  the  lining-  of  a  portman- 
teau ;  no  chance  of  losing  it :  here  it  is." 

And  she  produced  a  yellow  document  from  her  bodice 
and  laid  it  on  the  table. 

Lily  seized  upon  it  ...  read  it  at  a  glance  . 
it  was  quite  regular !  Oh,  the  footy  rotter !  Two  wives ! 
To  say  nothing  of  his  thirty-six  girls !  And  what  a  fine 
trick  she  would  play  him!  At  last,  she  was  about  to 
get  rid  of  her  festering  sore !  She  could  not  breathe  for 
happiness.  And,  as  Ave  Maria  was  watching  her  move- 
ments, lest  she  should  keep  the  paper,  Lily  handed  it  back 
to  her,  certain  that  it  was  in  good  hands,  that  it  would  not 
be  lost. 

Then  and  there  an  idea  came  to  her.  Trampy  would 
be  at  the  theater  that  afternoon  with  Tom,  who,  knowing 
little  about  all  these  stories,  interested  only  in  the  condi- 
tion of  those  biceps  of  his,  had  taken  Trampy  as  his  as- 
sistant and  had  told  Lily  so.  And  Lily  had  said  nothing, 
reserving  to  herself  the  right  to  have  him  turned  off  the 
stage  by  Jimmy,  with  a  smack  in  the  eye,  before  every- 
body :  the  footy  rotter,  coming  there  to  defy  her !  Well, 
there  would  be  no  smack  in  the  eye;  she  would  simply 
hand  him  over  to  Ave  Maria,  as  one  flings  a  lump  of 
carrion  to  a  tigress ! 

"Wait  a  bit,  you  faithful  husband!"  she  growled. 
"You'll  see,  presently !" 

And,  first  of  all,  when  Ave  Maria  rose  to  go,  Lily  for- 
bade her  to  do  anything  of  the  kind,  for  fear  that  the 
brother,  who  must  be  out  looking  for  her,  might  drag  her 
back  to  the  booth  at  the  fair  and  then  take  the  first  train 
to  some  other  place,  after  getting  hold  of  the  Bambinis. 


364  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

And  Lily  meant  none  of  all  this  to  take  place ;  she  would 
rather  go  to  the  police  and  have  the  brute  arrested ! 

"Stay  here,  Ave  Maria,"  she  said.  "I'll  give  you  back 
your  Trampy  this  afternoon." 

Oh,  if  she  had  been  alone,  how  she  would  have  flown 
at  Glass-Eye,  to  work  off  her  superabundant  joy!  It 
would  have  been  a  merciless  fight,  with  slaps  in  the 
Mexican  style!  But  a  lady  receiving  her  friends  must 
set  a  good  example.  She  contented  herself  with  hustling 
Glass-Eye  by  word  and  gesture : 

"My  new  dress !    My  big  hat !" 

Ave  Maria,  quite  taken  up  with  the  excitement  of  see- 
ing Trampy  again,  of  having  him  back  again,  left  her- 
self in  Lily's  hands.  She  felt  as  if  she  were  looking  at 
a  princess,  when  Lily  made  Glass-Eye  spin  round  the 
room.  She  could  not  even  help  smiling  when  she  saw 
Glass-Eye  catch  her  foot  in  the  dresses  spread  out  on 
the  floor,  so  much  so  that  Lily  asked  her  angrily  if  she 
meant  to  go  on  hopping  about  like  that  for  ever,  if  she 
really  wanted  to  have  a  candle  lit  in  her  glass  eye  to  make 
her  see  that  bodice,  there,  right  in  front  of  her  nose, 
damn  it!  And  Glass-Eye's  fright,  when  she  heard  that 
.  .  .  though  Glass-Eye  was  never  surprised  at  any- 
thing that  Lily  said  or  did ! 

Going  to  the  Astrarium,  Lily,  followed  by  Glass-Eye, 
walked  along  the  street  with  her  cheeky  feather  waving 
like  a  flag  in  battle.  Ave  Maria,  by  her  side,  kept  close 
to  the  wall,  with  frightened  glances  to  right  and  left ;  Lily 
did  not  call  her  attention  to  the  Astrarium  posters  for  fear 
of  humiliating  her:  she  would  have  had  to  explain  that 
she  was  topping  the  bill  and  poor  Ave  Maria,  who 
was  starring  at  the  fair,  would  never  have  understood. 
A  professional  abyss  separated  the  two  of  them.  Lily 


AMONG   THE    STARS  365 

saw  this  and  had  too  kind  a  heart  to  let  the  other  feel  it. 
What  a  difference  between  them !  Merely  in  the  way  in 
which  Lily  entered  the  theater  and  smiled  to  the  stage- 
doorkeeper!  Ave  Maria  followed  very  timidly,  like  a 
beggar-woman  stealing  into  a  palace.  She  felt  out  of  her 
element  in  those  big  theaters,  where  she  had  not  appeared 
for  ever  so  long,  having  come  down  to  the  level  of  one- 
horse  circuses,  patched  canvas  tents,  acrobatic  perform- 
ances in  the  open  air,  on  the  slack-wire  stretched  from 
tree  to  tree.  Lily  looked  a  princess  beside  her,  really.  Ave 
Maria  was  even  surprised  to  see  her  address  a  gentle- 
man who  was  there :  it  was  the  architect,  with  a  bandage 
over  his  eye.  Ave  Maria  recognized  him;  and  he,  ren- 
dered prudent  by  the  blow  which  he  had  received  from 
"her  man,"  stepped  back  instinctively  at  the  sight  of  her. 
But  Lily  caught  him  by  the  lapel  of  his  coat : 

"You've  been  fooling  me  .  .  .  with  your  measure- 
ments," she  said,  "and  there  are  certain  things  that  jos- 
sers oughtn't  to  meddle  with  ;  and  it  serves  you  right,  that 
black  eye  of  yours ;  but  I  forgive  you,  because  of  the  im- 
mense service  you're  doing  me  .  .  .  without  know- 
ing it  ...  you  lover  of  second-rate  goods!"  she 
muttered,  as  she  watched  him  slink  off,  taking  her  for- 
giveness with  him. 

The  stage  was  almost  empty.     Tom  had  come,  not 
Trampy ;  so  much  the  better,  there  would  be  all  the  more 
there  presently,  for  the  great  scene ! 
.     "Wait  for  me  a  minute,"  she  said  to  Ave  Maria.    "Sit 
down  over  there,  in  the  corner." 

And  Lily  went  up  to  her  dressing-room;  she  wanted 
to  look  her  best,  to  bedizen  herself  ...  a  little  red 
on  her  lips,  a  little  blue  on  hen  eyelids  ...  to  make 
Trampy  regret  the  more  what  he  was  going  to  lose.  And, 


366  TtHE    BILL-TOPPERS 

when  she  was  ready,  Jimmy  passed  and,  icicle  though  he 
was,  could  not  help  paying  her  a  compliment  on  her  good 
looks.  He  appeared  quite  disconcerted : 

"Just  imagine,  Lily.  What  do  you  think  happened  to 
me,  in  the  impersonator's  dressing-room?  I  had  some- 
thing to  say  to  him  ...  I  walk  in  ...  see  the 
impersonator  half  undressed  .  .  .  and  it's  a  woman, 
Lily,  a  magnificent  woman!  You  never  told  me,  you 
kiddie !" 

"Hush !"  said  Lily.  "Don't  give  her  away ;  it's  a  secret, 
it's  her  living,  Jimmy." 

"Don't  be  afraid,  Lily>  I  won't  prevent  any  one  from 
earning  her  living,  as  long  as  she  does  all  right  on  the 
stage.  But  I  don't  know  where  I  am  now.  That  woman 
who  came  in  with  you,  for  instance,"  continued  Jimmy 
jestingly,  "she  looks  just  like  a  man;  there's  no  knowing; 
nothing  would  surprise  me  after  that !" 

"She's  a  woman,  Jimmy,  a  married  woman !  You'll 
see  presently.  We'll  have  a  good  laugh;  mind  you're 
there!  I  want  everybody  to  be  there!  It's  a  surprise, 
Jimmy !" 

What  a  kiddie  she  was,  thought  Jimmy,  as  he  went 
down  the  stairs.  The  architect,  the  impersonator:  the 
two  scandals  of  her  life.  That  impersonator  whom  she 
kissed  in  front  of  him,  a  story  that  had  gone  round  the 
world,  Lily's  love  affairs,  one  more  ready  to  leave  wife 
and  children  for  her  sake :  the  exaggeration  of  the  stage, 
always ;  professional  boasting.  Like  the  story  of  the 
whippings,  like  those  girls  whom  she  had  described  to 
him,  and  herself,  with  all  over  her  skin — "Here,  here, 
damn  it!" — wounds  that  you  could  put  your  ringer  into. 
Or  like  those  who  were  said  to  be  done  for,  or  burned 
alive,  or  drowned  in  shipwrecks,  with  waves  miles  high, 


Lily  quivered  in  his  embrace      Page  386 


AMONG   THE   STARS  367 

all  for  the  honor  of  the  profession;  when,  perhaps,  it 
was  simply  as  good  a  way  as  another  of  retiring  from 
the  stage,  to  get  married,  with  a  flourish  of  trumpets! 
It  wasn't  true,  all  that,  or  their  parade  of  vice  either,  all 
humbug,  from  end  to  end,  their  amorous  conquests,  their 
orgies,  their  escapades,  like  their  ostrich-feathers,  that 
long,  or  their  sham  diamonds,  that  big,  and  bouquets 
large  enough  to  fill  a  cab.  But  they  were  decent-hearted 
girls,  all  the  same:  that  Lily,  what  a  kiddie,  thought 
Jimmy,  feeling  quite  comforted,  quite  glad  on  her  ac- 
count. 

And  just  then,  as  luck  would  have  it,  he  met  Tom,  to 
whom  Glass-Eye  had  brought  Miss  Lily's  album,  with  a 
request  for  his  autograph.  Tom,  whose  formidable 
muscles  were  hardly  capable  of  wielding  a  pen,  especially 
to  write  "thoughts,"  was  holding  the  album  with  a  sheep- 
ish look,  turning  it  round  and  round : 

"I  say,"  he  said,  as  Jimmy  passed,  "write  something 
forme!" 

"All  right!"  said  Jimmy. 

And  he  lightly  turned  the  pages  of  the  album,  the  fa- 
mous album,  said  to  be  crammed  with  passionate  declara- 
tions. Not  a  bit  of  it !  Nothing  but  foolery  and  childish 
nonsense : 

"May  joy  and  pleasure  be  your  lot 
.    .    .    trot,  trot,  trot  1" 

"...    Regard  me  as  a  link. 

LOVING  PAL." 

"Un  afetuoso  saludo  y  un  augurio  de  fells  viaje  le 
desea  Pedro  y  Paolo" 


368  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

"Hoping  we  shall  meet  again,  if  not  here,  there. 

"JoE  BROOKS." 


"Puedo  declr  que  nunca  he  visto  yoo    .   .   .    tan  cuida  y 
bella 


There  was  page  upon  page,  in  this  style,  with,  here  and 
there,  a  rough  sketch  :  a  heart  pierced  by  an  arrow,  signed, 
"Castaigne ;"  a  dried  shamrock:  "Blarney  Castle;"  a  bit 
of  seaweed:  "Dundee."  Jimmy  smiled  to  himself  and 
especially  at  what  he  heard  beside  him,  where  Glass-Eye, 
while  gazing  wide-eyed  at  Tom's  immense  arms,  was  tell- 
ing him  all  her  troubles :  quite  mad,  Miss  Lily,  ought  to 
be  locked  up!  And  she  ought  to  know:  never  left  her 
side  since  she  began  traveling  by  herself,  day  or  night. 

"You're  a  lucky  one,  you  are !"  Tom  broke  in. 

"I  should  like  to  see  you  try  it,  just!"  Glass-Eye  re- 
torted. "And  meantime  I  get  more  smacks  than  halfpence. 
Oh,  I  know  she'll  pay  me  all  in  a  lump,  when  she  gets  it ! 
She's  very  generous,  really.  And  her  Pa  and  Ma  .  .  . 
yes  ...  do  you  know  what  she  means  to  do  ?  She's 
not  angry  with  them  any  longer.  She's  going  to  stuff 
them  with  turkey  and  pudding  at  the  hotel  and  stand 
them  fifty  francs'  worth  of  flowers.  She's  forgiven 
them !" 

"That's  more  than  I  have!"  replied  Tom.  "Her  Pa 
will  know  what  I  am  made  of  to-morrow,  the  brute! 
He'll  have  one  on  the  mug,  for  boxing  my  ears  and  kick- 
ing me  out  .  .  .  you  know  .  .  .  because  of  the 
letters  from  Trampy." 

"If  you  do  that,  Tom,  you'll  have  Miss  Lily  to  reckon 
with!  What!  You're  laughing!"  cried  Glass-Eye  an- 


AMONG    THE    STARS  369 

grily.  "You  don't  know  how  it  hurts  ...  on  one's 
bones!  And  those  pillow-fights:  I've  had  my  nose 
smashed  in  one  of  them  before  now!  Nothing  surprises 
me  that  Miss  Lily  says  or  does.  Why,  this  very  morn- 
ing, she  wanted  to  put  a  lighted  candle  in  my  glass  eye !" 

"Eh,  what?  A  light  in  your  eye?"  exclaimed  Tom 
suddenly.  "I  wonder  if  one  really  could  ...  I  say, 
Jimmy,  could  one  ?" 

"Yes,"  said  Jimmy,  greatly  amused,  "with  an  invisible 
wire  under  the  dress.  ..." 

"Hurrah !"  cried  Tom.  "Would  you  like  two  shillings 
a  day,  Glass-Eye?  And  your  food  and  clothes?  You 
shall  travel  with  me ;  you  shall  appear  on  the  stage.  Come 
along  to  the  cafe,  we'll  sign  the  engagement !" 

"But  what  will  Miss  Lily  say?"  objected  Glass-Eye, 
trembling  at  the  idea  of  announcing  her  departure  to  her 
terrible  mistress. 

"Well,"  said  Tom,  "I'll  be  nice  to  her  Pa,  if  she's  nice 
to  you.  Come  along!" 

"But  I  don't  know  how  to  sign  my  name." 

"You  can  make  your  mark,  before  two  witnesses. 
Come  along!" 

Glass-Eye,  dazzled  and  beglamored,  followed  Tom. 
She,  an  artiste!  On  the  stage!  At  last!  Going  round 
the  world  with  Tom  .  .  .  living  with  him  .  .  . 
married  .  .  .  almost! 

"That's  come  in  the  nick  of  time !"  said  Jimmy,  as  he 
watched  her  go  off  the  stage.  "Lily,  perhaps  ...  in 
her  new  position  .  .  .  will  want  a  real  maid,  not  a 
Glass-Eye!  Lily  .  .  .  why,  she's  perfection!  To 
think  of  the  abysses  she  has  walked  along  without  falling ! 
There's  more  merit  than  one  thinks  in  that  kind  of  life. 
And  how  I  should  like  to  get  hold  of  the  people  who 


370  THE    BILL -TOPPERS 

talk  ill  of  her.    And  that     .      .      .     that     ...     oh, 
that  one !" 

And  Jimmy  clenched  his  fists,  at  the  thought  of 
Trampy,  and  his  heart  burst  forth :  all  his  patient,  brave, 
manly  heart,  now  well  nigh  exhausted. 


CHAPTER  IV 


Poor  Ave  Maria,  indifferent  to  what  was  going  on  be- 
fore her,  was  still  waiting  on  the  stage.  For  that  matter, 
it  was  but  a  few  minutes  since  Lily  brought  her  there. 
Ave  Maria  felt  inclined  to  go 
and  meet  Trampy  on  the 
pavement,  to  throw  her  arms 
round  his  neck  as  soon  as  he 
appeared.  But  Lily  had  ear- 
nestly recommended  her  not 
to  move,  whatever  happened. 
So  she  remained  in  her  cor- 
ner and,  under  the  pale  light, 
with  her  back  to  the  forest 
scene,  in  the  shadow,  Ave 
Maria  looked  like  a  lurking 
she-wolf,  ready  to  leap  out  at 
any  moment. 

As  for  Lily,  she  tripped 
down  the  stairs  to  the  stage, 
for  a  few  seconds  contem- 
plated all  those  bill-toppers  at 
her  feet,  so  to  speak;  but  she  took  the  last  stairs  at  a 
bound :  Trampy  had  just  entered !  Ave  Maria,  in  her  cor- 
ner, behind  the  pillars  and  the  confused  heap  of  scenery, 
could  not  see  him.  Lily  preferred  that.  She  would 
manage  everything  her  own  way  and  get  rid  of  him 

371 


AVE  MARIA 


372  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

once  and  for  all  ...  get  rid  of  that  footy  rotter 
who  had  come  there  to  jeer  at  her.  He  stepped  along, 
with  his  hat  on  one  side  and  a  dead  cigar  between  his 
teeth.  Trampy,  broken,  diseased,  done  for,  was  jubilant 
for  all  that;  turned  his  broad  smile  from  girl  to  girl, 
winked  his  eye  gaily  at  the  Roofers,  who  drew  back  in 
disgust,  and,  with  outstretched  hand : 

"How  d'you  do,  Lily  ?    How's  my  dear  little  wife  ?" 

He  enjoyed  the  humiliation  which  he  was  inflicting 
upon  her,  would  have  liked  his  clothes  to  be  still  shab- 
bier, his  shoes  more  down  at  heel,  so  that  he  might  thor- 
oughly disgrace  his  dear  little  wife — that  great  bill-top- 
per, who  was  leaving  the  pink  of  husbands  in  such  a  state 
of  destitution.  And  he  threw  out  his  chest,  increased  his 
familiarities,  and  even  pretended  to  kiss  her,  pushed  his 
blotched  and  pimpled  mug  close  to  that  charming  face. 
Jimmy  gave  a  bound:  Trampy!  On  the  stage!  Lily's 
tormentor!  Jimmy,  pale  with  fury,  walked  up  to  him, 
stiff-armed,  ready  to  break  the  jaw  of  that  thief  in  the 
night  and  chuck  him  into  the  street,  without  more  words ! 
But  Lily  stopped  him  with  a  quick  gesture : 

"Why,  Jimmy,"  she  said,  "would  you  keep  a  man  from 
earning  his  living?  Do  you  find  fault  with  a  husband 
for  loving  his  little  wife?  I  am  your  little  wife,  am  I 
not  ?"  she  continued,  tantalizing  Trampy  with  her  peach- 
like  cheek,  tickling  his  nose  with  her  fair  curls.  "Don't 
you  deserve  a  dear  little  wife?" 

"Why,  of  course  I  do!"  Trampy  agreed,  surprised, 
all  the  same,  at  this  loving  reception  from  his  dear  little 
wife. 

"There!"  cried  Lily,  unable  to  restrain  herself  any 
longer  and  giving  him  a  box  on  the  ears.  "That'll  teach 
you  to  call  me  your  little  wife,  you  damned  tramp  cyclist ! 


AMONG    THE    STARS  373 

I've  never  been  your  little  wife.  I'll  show  you  your  little 
wife,  the  real  one.  Come  along,  Ave  Maria!  Here's 
Trampy !" 

"Eh,  what?"  said  Trampy,  turning  color.  "Ave  Maria? 
I  don't  know  any  Ave  Maria." 

But  already  Ave  Maria  was  upon  him,  pressing  him  in 
her  arms:  her  Trampy!  And  her  cough  brought  pink- 
red  patches  to  her  hectic  cheeks. 

"What's  this  mean?  I  don't  know  you,"  he  stam- 
mered, gazing  horror-stricken  at  this  old,  lean  woman, 
who  was  taking  possession  of  him  before  everybody,  tak- 
ing possession  of  him  who  cared  only  for  plump  little 
things,  sultan  that  he  was.  "I  don't  know  her,  I  don't 
know  her !" 

"Here!"  cried  Lily,  snatching  the  paper  from  Ave 
Maria's  bodice.  "Do  you  know  that?  Can  you  read? 
Now  will  you  deny  that  she's  your  wife  .  .  .  your 
wife  .  .  .  your  wife  ?"  she  repeated,  rejoicing  in  be- 
ing able  to  hurl  the  word  to  Trampy,  who  turned  pale 
with  fright. 

"We'll  try  and  arrange  it,"  whispered  Jimmy,  still 
hardly  recovered  from  his  surprise.  "A  divorce  in  Lily's 
favor  first!  She'll  dictate  your  answer  for  you;  you've 
only  got  to  say  yes  to  everything.  And  then  you  can  be 
off  somewhere;  to  West  Australia.  I'll  pay  your  ex- 
penses. And  don't  you  ever  dare  to  show  your  face 
again !  Never !  Do  you  understand  ?" 

"And  that'll  teach  you  to  make  little  of  people !"  cried 
Lily.  "Let's  drink  to  the  health  of  Trampy,  the  faithful 
husband!  I'll  stand  champagne  all  round  to  the  health 
of  good  old  Trampy  and  his  dear  little  wife !" 

But,  without  waiting  for  the  champagne,  already  Ave 
Maria  was  dragging  Trampy  to  the  door  and  the  Roofer 


374  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

girls  gave  him  a  triumphal  exit.  They  sent  him  to  Hali- 
fax, they  sent  him  to  Coventry.  They  flourished  things  at 
his  head,  amid  an  uproar  of  jolly  hootings,  and  took  aim 
at  him — "Ping !  Ping !" — and  pinched  him,  as  the  Merry 
Wives  did  Falstaff  in  Windsor  Forest.  And  they  slipped 
off  their  shoes  in,  honor  of  his  wedding,  by  Jove !  And 
Trampy  fled  under  a  shower  of  boots  and  slippers,  fled 
like  mad,  as  though  the  devil  were  after  him. 

Jimmy  did  not  know  if  he  was  on  his  head  or  his  heels 
for  joy : 

"I'll  stand  the  champagne!"  he  said.  "To  Miss  Lily's 
health !" 

So  much  had  happened  in  those  few  minutes :  Lily 
free  again  .  .  .  and  no  scandal  .  .  .  the  divorce 
assured  .  .  .  Trampy  admitting  his  misdeeds,  in- 
venting them,  if  necessary,  confessing  anything  they 
asked  him  to,  as  long  as  they  did  not  mention  bigamy. 
.  ;.  .  Jimmy,  had  it  been  possible,  would  have  offered 
a  general  picnic  to  the  whole  company.  He,  usually  so 
calm,  felt  inclined  to  sing,  to  laugh.  Never  would  he 
have  dared  to  hope  .  .  .  And  it  had  all  come  so 
simply,  like  the  things  that  are  bound  to  happen.  Lily 
was  free! 

"Bring  the  bottles  up  here,"  he  said  to  the  call-boy, 
"and  biscuits  and  cakes.  We'll  drink  it  here!  We'll 
christen  the  stage,  as  if  we  were  launching  a  ship  .  .  . 
in  champagne,  here,  by  ourselves !  among  ourselves ! 
Here's  to  the  stage-manager !  Here's  to  all  of  us !" 

Lily,  happy  as  happy  could  be,  shook  everybody  by 
the  hand,  distributed  a  "  'K  you"  here  and  a  "  'K  you" 
there.  She  would  have  liked  to  have  Glass-Eye  by  her 
side,  to  keep  her  in  countenance,  open  her  bag,  give  her 
her  handkerchief  .  .  .  liked  to  be  a  little  lady  who 


AMONG    THE    STARS  375 

can't  do  without  her  maid  .  .  .  but,  damn  it,  where 
was  Glass-Eye  ?  And  Lily  clenched  her  fist  when  she  saw 
her  return  with  cakes  in  her  hands,  escorted  by  Tom,  who 
helped  to  carry  the  champagne. 

"Where  have  you  been,  Glass-Eye?"  asked  Lily  se- 
verely. "What  have  you  been  doing  with  Tom?  Give 
me  my  handkerchief,  Glass-Eye." 

"Here's  your  bag,  Miss  Lily,"  said  Glass-Eye  excit- 
edly. "Fm  going  to  leave  you,  Miss  Lily." 

"What  for?"  said  Lily,  feeling  vexed.  "Because  I 
owe  you  a  few  little  things  ?" 

"Oh,  no,  not  that !  I'm  going  to  be  a  star,  too ;  on  my 
hands:  Demon  Maud,  the  lady  with  the  flaming  eye;  a 
candle  in  my  glass  eye  .  .  .  before  two  witnesses 
.  .  .  I  made  my  mark  at  the  bottom." 

"She's  drunk!"  cried  Lily,  utterly  dumfounded.  "Or 
else  she's  going  mad.  Jimmy !  Tom !  Glass-Eye's  going 
mad !" 

But,  when  Tom  had  explained,  Lily  approved.  Glass- 
Eye  wasn't  stupid,  really ;  very  intelligent,  though  you'd 
never  think  it.  Glad  to  see  her  engaged.  .  .  .  And 
she  shook  her  by  the  hand,  like  an  old  friend  and  comrade, 
glad  to  hear  of  the  success  of  others  .  .  .  among  ar- 
tistes. .  .  . 

And,  suddenly,  with  head  thrown  back,  full-throated, 
her  feather  nodding  hysterically  on  her  head,  Lily 
laughed  .  .  .  laughed  .  .  .  laughed! 

Maud  an  artiste!  On  her  hands!  A  candle  in  her 
eye!  One  fat  freak  the  more  on  the  stage!  Gee,  they 
must  drink  to  Glass-Eye's  health:  Glass-Eye,  the  bill- 
topper  ! 

They  were  all  laughing  now,  filling  their  glasses  at  a 
table  in  the  middle  of  the  stage,  eating  cakes,  amusing 


376  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

themselves  with  the  corks,  which  went  pop,  like  xoy 
guns,  and  applauding  with  their  thumb-nails.  To  the 
Astrarium!  And  long  live  jollity!  That  night,  they 
would  one  and  all  risk  their  skins.  They  were  like  sol- 
diers drinking  to  their  sweethearts,  in  the  trenches,  be- 
fore the  battle.  And  everything  promised  well ;  already 
a  legend  was  forming  among  the  painted  faces :  the  book- 
ing office  besieged;  ladies  and  gentlemen  in  motors; 
motors  in  a  row,  miles  and  miles  of  motors;  the  street 
bursting  with  people  who  had  come  to  book  seats !  And 
champagne  on  the  stage,  cakes,  my,  for  the  asking!  An 
orgy  which  would  start  its  trip  around  the  world  to-mor- 
row, with  those  few  bottles  transformed  into  a  Niagara  of 
champagne,  enough  to  flood  every  greenroom  from  the 
Klondike  to  Calcutta ! 

They  all  enjoyed  themselves  and  let  themselves  go. 
And  the  Roofers,  who  worshiped  Lily,  in  spite  of 
her  abominable  tricks,  raised  their  glasses  to  her 
health,  crowded  round  her,  smiled  merrily  at  her  with 
their  white  teeth,  congratulated  her  for  sending  that  footy 
rotter  packing : 

"Here's  to  Miss  Lily!  And  a  round  on  the  thumb- 
nail in  honor  of  Miss  Lily !" 

This  christening  of  the  Astrarium  was  turning  into  a 
triumph  for  her ;  and  there  was  the  evening  to  come 
.  .  .  the  evening!  It  made  her  forget  Trampy, 
Jimmy,  Glass-Eye,  everybody.  And  .  .  .  the  next 
day  .  .  .  her  Pa,  her  Ma,  the  New  Trickers  would 
be  at  her  feet !  Oh,  she  would  give  ten  years  of  her  life 
if  to-morrow  could  be  there  now  1 

And  the  evening  came.  Lily  did  not  leave  the  theater. 
She  walked  nervously  from  her  dressing-room  to  the 
stage,  inspected  the  final  operations,  interested  herself  in 


AMONG    THE    STARS  377 

everything,  stopped  the  boy-violinist,  who  was  crossing 
the  stage  with  the  other  members  of  the  band,  congratu- 
lated him  on  his  approaching  marriage  with  one  of  the 
Graces.  She  talked  to  the  artistes  going  up  to  their 
dressing-rooms,  bestowed  a  smile  upon  Jimmy,  another 
on  the  stage-manager,  joked  with  the  limelight-men 
working  their  apparatus  on  either  side  of  the  stage.  The 
footlights  lit  up  with  a  row  of  flames,  the  storm  ap- 
proached. There  was  a  ringing  of  electric  bells — "Ting ! 
Ting !  Ting !" — as  in  the  machine-room  of  a  ship  before 
the  tempest;  the  orchestra  roared;  and,  as  though  at  a 
thunder-clap,  the  velvet  curtain  split  asunder:  Patti- 
Patty  was  revealed  on  the  stage,  while  the  band  played 
as  if  possessed.  Lily,  in  the  shadow  of  the  wings,  put 
her  hand  to  her  heart ;  her  veins  were  ablaze.  And  that 
audience,  at  which  she  peeped  through  a  crack  in  the 
scenery;  that  audience  was  hers,  with  its  rustling  silks, 
its  bare  shoulders,  its  diamonds,  its  flowers!  She  would 
have  liked  to  step  forward,  to  say : 

"Here  I  am !" 

She  felt  herself  excited  by  a  curious  feeling;  an  ag- 
gressive mood,  which,  no  doubt,  came  from  all  the  healths 
she  had  drunk :  to  the  Astrarium,  to  this  one,  to  that  one, 
to  all  of  us !  Gee,  what  fun  it  had  been :  champagne,  cakes, 
my,  tons  of  cakes!  And  Lily,  who  had  long  been  un- 
used to  any  such  excess,  felt  her  head  splitting.  A  fever 
seemed  also  to  reign  all  over  the  dressing-rooms  and 
passages.  They  talked  of  front  boxes  reserved  at  a  thou- 
sand francs  by  the  Aero  Club ;  stalls  at  fifty  francs ;  every 
seat  in  the  house  filled ;  and  the  best  people,  nothing  but 
the  best !  Lily,  in  her  exalted  condition,  took  it  that  they 
had  all  come  for  her;  and  she  had  to  dazzle  them  all! 
And  soar  above  them  all !  To  a  hurricane  of  applause 


378  THE    BILL -TOPPERS 

from  "her  favorite  audience,"  the  Astrarium  audience, 
on  a  first  night! 

And  she  felt  so  gay  that  she  was  not  angry  when  Glass- 
Eye  asked  her,  now  that  she  was  an  artiste,  too,  to  teach 
her  her  stage-smile. 

"Why,  of  course,  Glass-Eye!  I  owe  you  that,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  rest!  But  you  won't  lose  by  waiting! 
Take  my  word  for  it :  among  friends,  you  know !  .  .  ." 

And  she  kissed  her  maid,  felt  inclined  to  cry,  became 
quite  sentimental  at  her  going.  .  .  . 

She  was  less  amiable  to  Nunkie,  who  was  prowling 
around  near  her.  Oh,  how  angry  she  felt  with  that  old 
rogue !  Because  of  Thea,  first  of  all ;  and  then  it  was  he 
who  gave  her  away,  not  Jimmy!  Tom  had  told  her. 
Nunkie  mumbled  something  to  her:  his  dear  girls;  un- 
grateful creatures  who  were  leaving  him!  His  poor 
life  shattered !  His  pigeons,  he  had  his  pigeons  left ;  yes, 
and  his  home ;  but  what  was  that  compared  with  loving 
hearts  ?  And,  as  she  was  on  such  good  terms  with  Jimmy 
and  everybody,  couldn't  she  use  her  influence  ?  Oh,  if  he 
could  have  the  Bambinis,  be  appointed  their  guardian! 
He  would  bring  together  such  a  nice  little  family  troupe : 
all  the  joys  of  home ! 

"You  old  wretch!"  cried  Lily,  in  a  threatening  voice. 
"Just  go  and  look,  at  the  corner  of  Oxford  Street  and 
Newman  Street,  if  you  can  see  me!  You  old  snaky! 
You  old  bromide  merchant!  Hiding  letters,  too,  you 
nigger-driving  humbug !  Oh,  you're  sure  to  get  the  Bam- 
binis, I  don't  think !" 

"  Ver-r-rdammt !" 

Nunkie  turned  on  his  heel,  shaking  the  passage  with 
tremendous  oaths. 

"I  thought,"  Lily  shot  at  him  from  behind  sarcastic- 


AMONG    THE    STARS  379 

ally,  "I  thought  one  ought  never  to  swear!  It's  wicked 
to  swear,  Mr.  Fuchs!" 

In  her  dressing-room,  she  went  on  laughing  at  Nun- 
kie  and  his  "Donner-r-r-ivetter-r-r!"  and  his  "S-s-satant 
S-s-satan!"  It  made  her  comb  her  hair  all  awry  and 
apply  the  grease-paint  to  her  cheeks  with  a  trembling 
hand.  She  felt  a  buzzing  in  her  head :  that  confounded 
music  which  seemed  to  come  from  everywhere  and  hissed 
in  her  ears !  But,  when  her  turn  came,  she'd  show  them ! 
Never  had  she  felt  so  light.  She  was  sure  of  herself, 
strangely  sure.  It  seemed  to  her  that,  if  need  be,  she'd 
have  shot  up  to  the  stars,  damn  it ! 

As  soon  as  she  was  ready,  she  went  down  to  the  stage. 
She  didn't  know  why.  It  was  her  wish  to  be  everywhere, 
her  craving  for  movement.  The  aerobike  had  been  taken 
from  its  cage,  behind  the  back-drop ;  the  stage-manager, 
Jimmy  and  Jimmy's  assistants  were  standing  round  it. 
Jimmy  was  testing  everything,  for  the  last  time,  making 
sure  that  there  would  be  no  hitch : 

"Hullo,  Lily!"  he  said,  when  he  saw  Her.  "Are  you 
ready?" 

"Ready?"  said  Lily.  "Look!" 

And  she  flung  back  her  wrap  with  her  two  bare  arms 
and  stood,  a  figure  all  charm  and  grace,  with  youth,  joy 
and  courage  sparkling  in  her  eyes.  In  the  mysterious 
half-light,  amid  the  endless  sounds  from  the  band,  Lily 
seemed  to  shed  rays.  Jimmy,  dazzled,  looked  at  that 
dainty  form,  that  delicate  breast,  those  rounded  should- 
ers, that  splendid  body  fashioned  by  years  of  Spartan  life, 
each  muscle  of  which  was  quivering  with  enthusiasm. 
And  she  laughed  .  .  .  laughed  .  .  .  head  thrown 
back,  full-throated ;  told  the  story  of  Nunkie,  with  furi- 
ous gestures,  as  though  she  were  strangling  the  old  beast. 


380  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

And  then  came  sudden  displays  of  feeling,  for  the  Three 
Graces  and  the  Bambinis. 

Jimmy  had  never  seen  her  like  that.  The  stage-man- 
ager also  thought  her  queer,  for  he  looked  at  Jimmy  as 
though  to  ask  what  on  earth  was  the  matter  with  her. 
And,  going  up  to  him,  he  said : 

"Look  how  she's  trembling !  One  would  think  she  had 
a  fever." 

"It's  quite  true,"  said  Jimmy. 

And  the  two  stared  at  each  other  in  consternation 
when  Lily,  stooping  to  pick  up  her  cloak,  was  nearly 
losing  her  balance  and  coming  to  the  ground.  They  ex- 
changed a  few  words  in  a  whisper.  Then  the  stage-man- 
ager said: 

"Go  up  to  your  dressing-room,  Miss  Lily.  You  mustn't 
stay  here,  you  know.  We'll  send  for  you  when  the  time 
comes.  Go  and  put  your  hair  straight." 

It  was  only  a  pretext ;  but  the  same  thought  had  passed 
through  both  their  minds :  it  was  the  champagne !  Lily, 
who  was  accustomed  to  drink  nothing  but  water,  was 
.  .  .  if  not  exactly  drunk  .  .  .  well  .  .  . 

Thereupon,  in  an  instant,  Jimmy  made  up  his  mind :  it 
was  finished  and  settled,  irrevocably,  as  though  he  had 
spent  hours  in  reflecting.  The  newspapers  had  ex- 
pressed doubts ;  there  had  been  suggestions  of  trickery. 
An  immediate,  brilliant  success  was  essential,  to  carry  the 
thing  off:  a  hitch  and  all  was  lost  and  the  luck  of  the 
Astrarium  and  his  own  fame  vanished  in  smoke!  Lily 
was  out  of  the  question  that  night:  she  was  bubbling 
over  at  every  pore  with  unnatural  excitement  .  .  . 
she  was  not  Lily, — was  not  herself  ...  it  meant 
certain  death  to  her,  the  aerobike  smashed  to  pieces,  the 
end  of  all  things !  Lily  would  do  it  to-morrow,  the  next 
night ;  but  not  to-night. 


AMONG   THE   STARS  381 

He  had  just  time  to  go  to  his  dressing-room  and  put 
on  his  white  sweater,  black  breeches,  black  stockings: 
an  athletic  costume  which  he  always  kept  at  the  theater 
in  case  of  need.  And  quick,  in  the  saddle :  the  moment 
had  come!  He  must  succeed,  now  or  never!  And 
Jimmy,  calm  and  sure  of  himself,  took  his  seat  on  the 
aerobike.  A  great  silence  followed.  .  .  . 

Lily,  at  that  very  minute,  anxious  at  not  being  sent  for 
in  her  dressing-room,  was  going  back  to  the  stage,  but 
she  was  stopped  at  the  top  of  the  stairs  by  the  stage-man- 
ager, who  said  that  he  had  received  an  order  by  telephone 
from  Cologne,  from  Harrasford:  Lily  not  to  perform 
that  night.  .  .  . 

"Let  me  pass,"  cried  Lily,  laughing  in  spite  of  every- 
thing. "That's  enough  of  a  joke.  It's  time  for  me  to  go 
on,  I  say !  Are  you  mad  ?  I  tell  you,  it's  my  turn !" 

But  she  ceased,  as  though  struck  by  thunder.  The 
aerobike,  with  wings  wide  open,  was  taking  flight  to- 
ward the  stars,  in  a  tempestuous  wind. 

It  was  done !  The  thing  had  shot  past  her  very  nose ! 
She  thought  that  she  would  fall,  so  great  was  the  pain  at 
her  heart. 

"No !    No !"  she  gasped,  with  dilated  eyes. 

And,  suddenly,  she  understood  and  uttered  a  cry  of 
rage! 

But  she  could  have  shouted,  "Murder!"  and  it  would 
have  sounded  as  the  buzzing  of  a  bee  amid  that  explosion 
of  cheers.  And  the  orchestra  grew  like  a  flame  and  the 
light  appeared,  increased  and  shone  all  over  the  house. 

Lily  flung  herself  back,  closed  her  eyes  so  as  not  to 
see,  fled  to  her  dressing-room  with  a  shriek  like  a 
wounded  beast's.  .  .  . 


CHAPTER  V 

She  dropped  into  her  chair,  stopped  up  her  ears ;  but 
the  cheers  never  ceased,  kept  on  increasing",  filled  the 
theater  with  a  roar  as  of  thunder!  Oh,  it  seemed  to 
her  that  her  chest  was  on  fire,  that  they  were  pounding 
her  heart ;  that  some  one  was  taking  her  by  the  hair  and 
banging  her  head  against  the  walls !  And  that  storm  of 
applause  kept  on  and  kept  on  ....  but  it  wasn't 
for  her !  It  was  for  Jimmy  all  the  time :  they  had  tried 
it  with  her,  that  was  all !  To  see  if  it  worked !  And  she, 
she,  she  who,  only  just  now,  was  giving  herself  airs  with 
the  others :  a  poor  rag,  yes,  that  was  all  she  was,  less  than 
anybody ;  less  than  Tom,  her  old  servant,  less  than  Glass- 
Eye,  that  idiot,  less  than  Ave  Maria,  less  than  a  perform- 
ing dog,  less  than  anything,  worse  than  anything,  per- 
haps! Mad  with  rage  she  jumped  at  her  golly wog, 
pulled  down  the  white-eyed  idol — the  traitor! — spat  on 
it,  crushed  it  on  the  floor  with  her  heel,  furious,  beside 
herself;  and  then  dropped  into  her  chair  again,  with  her 
two  arms  flat  on  the  table,  her  head  between  her  arms, 
among  the  grease-paints,  the  powder,  the  overturned  box 
of  spangles,  which  rolled  about  everywhere  and  strewed 
the  floor.  She  felt  inclined  to  bite  into  her  flesh  to  relieve 
herself,  she  clenched  her  fists  and  dug  her  nails  into  her 
skin.  Oh,  she  would  have  liked  to  die,  to  die !  It  was  so 
fierce  a  longing,  so  desperate  a  cry  that  the  force  of  her 

382 


AMONG    THE    STARS  383 

prayer  ought  to  have  struck  her  dead  where  she  sat.  And 
suddenly  the  tears  began  to  flow  and  she  cried  and  cried, 
all  convulsed  with  sobs,  floored,  shipwrecked,  done  for. 
She  cried  and  cried,  as  though  stupefied,  saw  nothing  save 
through  a  thick  veil  of  water,  like  a  person  drowning, 
sinking.  It  seemed  to  her  as  if  the  tears  would  groove 
her  face,  for  always.  Oh,  what  would  she  give  to  be  at 
home,  in  bed!  Never,  never  again  would  she  have  the 
strength  to  do  a  thing.  She  was  done  for,  buried  alive. 
And  that  coward  of  a  Jimmy,  to  obey  Harrasford's  order ! 
Oh,  the  harm  he  had  done  her!  She  would  rather  have 
died  smashed  to  a  jelly  on  the  stage:  she  would  have 
suffered  less !  Oh,  to  behave  like  that :  to  flash  so  much 
before  her  eyes  ;  and  then  to  fling  her  to  the  ground !  Oh, 
when  she  had  thought  that  he  loved  her  and  that  she  loved 
him  also,  perhaps !  And  Lily  cried  and  cried.  .  .  . 

Meanwhile,  in  front,  the  aerobike  was  receiving  endless 
applause.  The  disappearance  through  the  opening,  the 
plunge  into  space,  the  star  snatched  from  up  above,  that 
piece  of  theatrical  symbolism  filled  the  audience  with  en- 
thusiasm. The  aerobike  brought  down  the  house,  its  suc- 
cess surpassed  all  expectation,  and  the  Astrarium  was 
opening  with  a  victorious  clamor. 

"Yes,  but  at  what  a  cost !"  said  Jimmy  to  himself,  in 
spite  of  the  cheers. 

And,  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  escape,  putting  off  for 
a  few  minutes  his  replies  to  the  cards  that  poured  in — the 
chairman  of  the  Aero  Club,  journalists  begging  for  inter- 
views— Jimmy  had  but  one  idea,  to  console  Lily  for  her 
disappointment  of  that  evening :  poor  Lily ! 

His  heart  was  beating  very  loudly  as  he  went  to  her 
dressing-room.  Jimmy  was  no  longer  the  fellow  who 


384  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

knew  no  fear.  To  fly  away  on  the  aerobike,  to  risk  his 
skin  was  easy,  for  him  at  least ;  but  to  face  Lily  .  .  . 
to  explain  to  her  .  .  .  with  all  those  things  seething 
within  him  .  .  .  and,  oh,  the  pain  he  was  causing 
her !  How  could  he  approach  her  after  that  ?  And  could 
he  ever  get  her  to  love  him  ?  Ah,  perhaps  it  would  have 
been  better  if  he  had  gone  and  broken  his  neck  in  the 
street,  on  the  pavement!  Jimmy  was  trembling  like  a 
child ;  in  his  perturbation,  he  even  forgot  to  knock  at  the 
door  .  .  .  turned  the  knob  .  .  .  entered.  .  .  . 

Lily  heard  nothing,  seemed  crushed  into  her  chair, 
with  her  face  buried  in  her  right  arm  folded  on  the  table, 
while  the  left  hung  lifeless  by  her  side.  Her  whole  atti- 
tude expressed  abject  misery,  profound  despair;  she 
seemed  extinguished  in  a  terrifying  calmness. 

Jimmy,  to  attract  her  attention,  closed  the  door  noisily. 
Lily  stirred  no  more  than  a  wax  figure :  one  might  have 
thought  her  dead. 

He  shivered;  and,  stepping  forward,  leaning  over  to 
her,  anxiously,  he  placed  his  hand  on  her  shoulder. 

It  was  like  a  spring  that  is  suddenly  released!  Lily 
threw  up  her  sorrow-stricken  face,  down  which  the  tears, 
mingling  with  the  red  paint,  flowed  like  blood,  looked  at 
him  for  a  few  seconds  with  a  wandering  air  and  then 
leaped  at  him,  as  though  she  meant  to  bite  him  in  the  face ; 
but  her  lips  shriveled  up  in  silence,  nothing  came  from 
them;  and  she  crushed  Jimmy  with  an  unspeakable  look 
of  terror  and  contempt. 

Jimmy  did  not  flinch : 

"You  must  not  be  angry  with  me,"  he  said  gently.  "I 
was  bound  to  do  it,  Lily ;  I  had  to  save  the  theater." 

"And  get  rid  of  me!"  cried  Lily,  wild-haired,  hard- 


AMONG    THE    STARS  385 

eyed,  hoarse-throated,  with  the  tears  drying  on  her  red- 
hot  cheeks. 

Jimmy  was  pale  as  death.  Ah,  all  his  dreams,  too, 
were  fading  away ! 

"Lily,"  he  said,  in  a  voice  which  he  strove  to  make  firm, 
but  which  trembled  with  emotion.  "I  have  done  my  duty 
to  everybody,  yourself  included !  But  for  me,  you  would 
be  lying  dead  at  this  minute  and  the  Astrarium  would  be 
ruined.  You  were  not  in  a  state  to  appear  in  public 
.  .  .  this  evening  .  .  .  believe  me,  Lily.  The 
stage-manager  himself  .  .  .  " 

Lily  lowered  her  head  under  his  calm  gaze.    .    .    . 

"But  you'll  do  it  to-morrow,"  continued  Jimmy,  very 
quickly,  "before  Pa  and  Ma !  To-morrow  and  the  follow- 
ing days  .  .  .  and  always !  Your  name  will  be  right 
at  the  top  of  the  bill !  Do  you  hear?  To-morrow  .  .  . 
and  always !" 

"But  what  .  .  .  ?  Why  .  .  .  ?"  asked  Lily,  as 
though  stupefied. 

"Poor  Lily,"  he  replied,  gently  raising  that  face  all 
distorted  with  grief.  "Poor  little  Lily!  I  have  caused 
you  a  heap  of  pain." 

Lily,  for  her  sole  answer,  gave  a  convulsive  sob ;  a  tear 
leaped  to  her  eyelids. 

"Don't  cry,"  whispered  Jimmy,  "don't  cry  any  more. 
It  will  be  your  turn  to-morrow,  before  the  New  Trickers. 
To-morrow !  Every  night !" 

"Every  night?"  asked  Lily,  still  incredulous  and  yet 
transfigured  with  hope.  "You're  saying  that,  Jimmy; 
but  ..." 

"Do  you  doubt  my  word,  Lily?"  he  replied,  pressing 
her  gently  to  him.  "What,  I,  your  best  friend,  your  only 


386  THE    BILL-TOPPERS 

friend  ...  I  who  .  .  .  haven't  I  always  loved 
you,  Lily  ?  Do  you  think  I've  changed  ?  .  .  .  I  love 
you  more  than  ever  I  did !  I  will  explain  everything  later. 
And  you  doubt  me  .  .  .  who  would  give  my  life 
for  you;  yes,  life  without  you  means  nothing  to  me," 
continued  Jimmy,  in  a  stifled  voice  and  clasping  Lily  in 
his  arms. 

Lily  quivered  in  his  embrace,  hid  her  blushing  features 
on  his  breast,  where  she  heard  great  dull  throbs.  She 
trembled  from  head  to  foot.  Her  quickened  senses 
seemed  to  perceive  everything  now ;  the  passing  indispo- 
sition from  which  she  had  suffered,  without  knowing  it, 
the  light  fumes  of  the  champagne :  all  that  had  suddenly 
gone,  was  far  away ;  she  had  never  felt  more  lucid ;  she 
saw,  sire  understood  and  was  overcome  with  delight, 
overcome  with  a  delight  beside  which  her  enthusiasm  of 
the  previous  day  seemed  dark  and  dreary.  The  ardor  of 
her  eighteen  years  swelled  her  breast.  Success,  in  any 
case !  To-morrow !  And  that  man  was  hers,  that  heart 
was  hers !  It  was  a  dream,  an  enchantment !  Her  head 
rolled  back,  a  smile  drew  up  her  lips,  her  eyes,  through 
her  tangled  curls,  seemed  all  ablaze.  Jimmy  bent  his 
glowing  face  over  her.  Lily,  on  the  point  of  swooning, 
raised  her  lips  to  his. 

Vanished  around  them  the  low  ceiling,  the  scratched 
walls,  the  shabby  rags.  Standing  on  the  wretched  span- 
gles that  strewed  the  dusty  floor,  Lily,  drunk  with  joy 
.  .  .  Jimmy,  distraught  with  pride  .  .  .  seemed 
like  youth  and  love,  in  mid-sky,  among  the  stars ! 


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